■■ 


By-paths  of  Biblehnouledcj 
XXll 


William  Knigut,  .m.  .7, 


3. XI. XI 


iFrnm  tl|?  fftbrarg  of 

M^qmnti^th  bg  l|tm  tn 

ll|?  SItbrary  nf 

Prinrrton  JUtj^ulogtral  g^rmtttarg 

±S5  1 1^7 
>aK7i 


THE   ARCH   OF  TITUS    VESPASIANUS. 


i^g'latjs  of  mUt  mnotoletjge  .^^ 22  19' 

XXII  V/V 

THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 


AND 


THE   SPOILS   OF    THE   TEMPLE 


BY  THE  LATE 

WILLIAM   KNIGHT,  M.A. 

RECTOR   OF    ST.    MICHAEL'S   BRISTOL,   AND    CHAPLAIN    OF    THE    BLIND   ASYLUM 
HONORARY  CANON   OF   BRISTOL  CATHEDRAL 


WITH   AN  INTRODUCTION   BY   THE    LORD    BISHOP 
OF  DURHAM 


WITH  AUTHENTIC  ILLUSTRATIONS 


FLEMING    H.    REVELL   COMPANY 

NEW  YORK  CHICAGO 

112  Fifth  Avenue  63  Washington  Street 

The  Religious  Tract  Society  London 


PREFACE 


The  beautiful  and  scholarly  work  on  the  Arch 
of  Titus,  published  by  my  honoured  Father  in  1867, 
has  long  been  out  of  print.  It  is  now  again  given 
to  the  public,  in  an  attractive  but  much  cheaper 
form,  through  the  agency  of  the  Religious  Tract 
Society  ;  and  it  will  take  its  place  as  one  of  a 
series  of  valuable  manuals  dealing  with  Subjects 
of  Bible  Criticism.  It  is  published  in  this  form  in 
the  hope  that  it  may  be  useful  to  a  large  circle  of 
readers,  whom  it  did  not  reach  in  its  elegant,  but 
much  more  costly  style.  The  wishes  of  the  writer 
will  be  carried  out  by  the  publication  of  this 
Edition,  for  he  valued  his  learning  and  literary 
ability  mainly  because  he  was  allowed  to  use  them 
for  the  highest  welfare  of  his  brethren. 

R.  J.  Knight. 

Tkroivley  Vicarage,  Kent 


CONTENTS 


CHAP. 

Preface       

Introduction  by  the  Bishop  of  Durham 
I.    The  Destruction  of  Jerusalem 
II.    The  Triumph  of  Titus    . 

III.  The  Arch  of  Titus. 

IV.  The  Jewish  Sacred  Vessels  . 
List  of  Scripture  References 
INDEX   


PAGE 

5 


54 

64 

88 

127 

128 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


Arch  of  Titus  (from  a  Photograph)  ....  2 
Coin  of  Titus  (Gesner's  Thesaurus)  ....  3 
Titus'  Apotheosis  (Bartoh's  Adiiilranda)  ...  69 
Keystone  (Desgodetz'  Edifices  Antiques)  .  .  .72 
Part  of  the  Frieze  (Bartoh's  ^</;//;m?;/<frt)  .  .  -75 
Vespasian  Coins  (British  Museum)  ,...']'] 
First  Tablet,  Titus  Triumphant  (Bartoh,  Ibid.)  .  .  79 
Second  Tablet,  the  Temple  Spoils  (Bartoli,  Ibid.)  .       83 

Shewbread  Table  and  Trumpets  (Reland,  De  Spoliis)  .  93 
Seven-branched  Candlestick  (Reland,  Z^!;/*^.) .         .         .     103 


INTRODUCTION 

It  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  the  Fall  of 
Jerusalem  is  the  most  significant  national  event  in 
the  history  of  the  world.  The  fact  that  the  Lord 
Himself  connected  it  with  His  own  Passion  is 
sufficient  to  establish  its  supreme  importance  (John 
ii.  19).  The  destruction  of  the  Temple  was  indeed 
involved  in  His  death.  That  which  had  been  in 
the  past  the  shrine  of  the  Presence  of  God  among 
His  people  was  necessarily  doomed  to  final  deso- 
lation when  '  the  more  perfect  Tabernacle '  had 
been  faithlessly  and  fatally  violated. 

There  is  a  still  further  connexion  between  the 
two  events.  The  Passion  was  the  condition  of  the 
Resurrection  :  the  destruction  of  the  Temple  was 
the  condition  of  the  establishment  of  the  Catholic 
Church.  As  long  as  the  Temple  remained,  a 
Catholic  Church  was  impossible.  The  venerable 
traditions   of  the  Divine  life   of  Israel  would,    in 


lo  THE  ARCH  OF   TITUS 

other  words,  have  checked  the  free  development  of 
the  Hfe  of  Christendom.  We  have  only  to  remem- 
ber what  has  been  the  disastrous  effect  of  the 
imperial  traditions  of  Rome  upon  the  Christian 
Society  in  order  to  estimate  what  it  would  have 
suffered  from  the  continuance  of  the  Temple.  But, 
in  apostolic  language,  the  Lord  '  came ' ;  and  the 
Spirit  found  His  home  among  the  first-fruits  of  the 
nations. 

We  do  not,  however,  as  I  think,  commonly 
realize  the  momentous  consequences  of  the  cata- 
strophe, or  study  with  adequate  care  the  details  of 
a  history  which  the  Romans  themselves  wished  to 
bring  to  a  different  end.  In  this  respect  the  im- 
pressive and  scholarly  narrative  of  Canon  Knight 
will  open  many  fruitful  lines  of  thought  to  the 
student.  He  will  find  as  he  follows  the  tragic 
incidents  that  God  fought  against  Israel,  as  Titus 
himself  confessed,  and  fulfilled  His  will  through 
Roman  armies.  The  overthrow  of  '  the  holy  city ' 
will  then  gain  its  true  spiritual  significance,  and  it 
will  not  seem  strange  that  the  priests  believed  they 
heard  '  on  entering  the  Temple  on  the  night  of  the 
Pentecost,  a  few  weeks  before  its  fall,  the  voice  as 
of  a  multitude.  We  are  departing  hence.' 

The  noble  Arch  of  Titus,  erected  after  his  death, 
itself  continues  the  lessons  of  Divine  government. 


INTRO  D  UCTION  1 1 

It  is  more  than  a  memorial  of  a  Roman  victory. 
It  constrains  us  to  reflect  how,  in  the  words  of  a 
heathen  poet  of  the  fifth  century,  the  conquered,  in 
one  sense,  trampled  on  the  conquerors  ;  and  yet 
more,  how  a  vigorous  remnant  of  the  vanquished 
still  remains,  when  Rome  has  perished,  and  awaits 
a  fulfilment  of  Divine  promises  after  age-long 
chastisements. 

It  is  needless  to  dwell  on  the  unique  interest  of 
the  sculptures  of  the  Arch,  which  contain  the  only 
contemporary  witness  to  the  ritual  of  the  Herodian 
Temple.  It  is  easy  to  exaggerate  the  importance 
of  independent  testimonies  to  the  contents  of  the 
Bible.  But,  a  coin,  a  relief,  an  inscription — like 
that  lately  discovered  by  Prot.  Flinders  Petrie,  in 
which  Merenptah,  speaking  of  his  successes,  says, 
the  people  of  Y Israel  is  spoiled,  it  hath  no  seed  (Ex. 
i.) — naturally  affect  us.  Facts  which  we  have  been 
accustomed  to  regard  as  isolated  in  a  sacred  en- 
closure, are  placed  in  the  open  course  of  history  ; 
and  we  find  that  the  Divine  record  belongs  to 
common  life.  The  lesson  illustrates  the  character 
of  revelation.  And  even  if  partial  and  impatient 
endeavours  to  place  the  history  and  records  of 
'  the  people '  of  God  in  line  with  the  history  and 
records  of '  the  nations '  cause  some  present  dis- 
tress, I  cannot  doubt  that  the  final  issue  of  such 


12  THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 

inquiries  will  be  to  give  us  a  larger  and  truer  con- 
ception of  the  whole  Divine  development  of  man- 
kind, and  a  clearer  conviction  as  to  the  unique 
character  of  the  discipline  and  office  of  Israel. 
And  nowhere  is  it  more  easy  to  recognize  how  the 
Divine  and  human,  as  we  speak,  work  together 
than  in  the  last  scenes  of  Jewish  national  life  which 
Canon  Knight  has  portrayed.  The  prophecies  of 
the  Lord  and  the  narrative  of  Josephus  combine  to 
form  one  picture,  complete  spiritually  and  ex- 
ternally. The  thoughts  which  the  picture  suggests 
are  of  w^ide  and  fruitful  application.  I  cannot 
therefore  but  hope  that  the  republication  of  Canon 
Knight's  Essay  will  attract  the  attention  of  many 
who  are  unfamiliar  with  the  circumstances  of  the 
close  of  the  Old  Dispensation. 

B.  F.  DUNELM. 

AiicklMid  Castle, 
July  1896. 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 

AND 

THE    SPOILS    OF    THE    TEMPLE 


CHAPTER    I 

THE   DESTRUCTION   OF  JERUSALEM 

In  our  Lord's  last  public  address  to  the  Jews, 
when  about  to  take  His  final  departure  from  the 
Temple,  He  tells  them  that  the  heaviest  woes  are 
hanging  over  them, — their  rulers,  their  teachers, 
themselves  and  their  metropolis, — and  that  their 
House  would  be  left  unto  them  desolate ;  that 
House  in  which  they  so  much  gloried,  which  He 
no  longer  calls  His  Father's  House,  but  theirs ;  for 
the  Lord  was  about  to  withdraw  from  it  and  to 
give  it  up  to  ruin. 

*  Behold,'  said  He,  *  I  send  unto  you  prophets, 
and  wise  men,  and  scribes  ;  and  some  of  them  ye 
shall  kill  and  crucify  ;  and  some  of  them  ye  shall 


14  THE  ARCH  OF   TITUS 

scourge  in  your  synagogues,  and  persecute  them 
from  city  to  city  ;  that  upon  you  may  come  all  the 
righteous  blood  shed  upon  the  earth,  from  the 
blood  of  righteous  Abel  unto  the  blood  of  Zacharias 
son  of  Barachias,  whom  ye  slew  between  the  sanc- 
tuary and  the  altar.  Verily,  I  say  unto  you,  All 
these  things  shall  come  upon  this  generation.'  ^ 

And  yet  this  denunciation  was  mingled  with 
compassion,  which  broke  forth  in  those  farewell 
words  :  '  O  Jerusalem,  Jerusalem,  thou  that  killest 
the  prophets,  and  stonest  them  which  are  sent  unto 
thee,  how  often  would  I  have  gathered  thy  children 
together,  even  as  a  hen  gathereth  her  chickens 
under  her  wings,  and  ye  would  not !  Behold,  your 
House  is  left  unto  you  desolate.  For  I  say  unto 
you,  Ye  shall  not  see  Me  henceforth,  till  ye  shall 
say,  Blessed  is  He  that  cometh  in  the  name  of  the 
Lord.' 

With  these  words  our  Lord  closed  His  mission 
to  the  Jewish  rulers  and  people  :  all  His  subsequent 
addresses  were  delivered  to  His  disciples. 

And  as  He  was  about  to  quit  the  Temple  some 
of  them,  astonished  at  His  words,  exclaimed,  'See 
what  stones,  and  what  buildings  are  here  ! '  For 
we  are  told  that  many  of  the  marble  blocks  which 
were  used  in  the  construction  of  that  magnificent 
1  Matt,  xxiii.  34-    36. 


THE   DESTRUCTION  OF  JERUSALEM       15 

edifice  were  more  than  forty  cubits  long.^  What, 
is  all  this  doomed  to  destruction  ;  this  House, 
in  which  we  and  our  fathers  have  worshipped, 
reverenced  by  prophets  and  adorned  by  kings  ? 
Yes,  even  so ;  as  He  had  already  told  them,  when 
He  wept  over  the  impenitent  city.  '  For  the  days 
are  coming,  that  thine  enemies  shall  cast  a  trench 
about  thee,  and  shall  compass  thee  round,  and 
keep  thee  in  on  every  side,  and  shall  lay  thee  even 
with  the  ground,  and  thy  children  within  thee  ; 
and  they  shall  not  leave  in  thee  one  stone  upon 
another,  because  thou  knewest  not  the  time  of  thy 
visitation.'  ^ 

They  had  called  Him  to  look  at  the  Temple's 
grandeur  and  stability ;  He  calls  them  to  take  a 
very  different  view  of  it.  '  See  ye  not  all  these 
things  }  Verily,  I  say  unto  you,  that  there  shall 
not  be  left  one  stone  upon  another  that  shall  not  be 
cast  down  : '  and  then,  on  their  reaching  the  Mount 
of  Olives,  whence  they  had  the  city  full  in  view,  in 
answer  to  the  question,  When  shall  these  things 
be,  and  what  shall  be  the  sign  of  Thy  coming,  and 
of  the  end  of  the  world  ?  our  Lord  delivered  that 
great  prophecy  of  His  final  advent  in  power  and 
glory,  to  judge  the  quick  and  dead,  at  His  appear- 
ing and  His  kingdom,  and  of  His  previous  coming 
^  Josephus,  Bell.Jiid.  v.  v.  6,  "^  Luke  xix.  43,  44. 


i6  THE  ARCH  OF   TITUS 

in   judgment  on   Jerusalem,  with  the  signs  of  her 
approaching  day  of  doom. 

In  the  first  place  He  charges  them — for  these 
prophecies  assume  the  form  of  warnings,  when 
addressed  to  His  disciples — to  beware  of  being 
deceived  by  false  Christs  and  false  prophets  ;  many 
of  whom  would  come  in  His  name.  He  then  tells 
them,  that  they  would  hear  of  wars  and  tumults, 
nation  against  nation,  and  kingdom  against  king- 
dom, but  that  the  end  would  not  be  yet  :  then  that 
there  would  be  famines  and  pestilences,  and  earth- 
quakes, with  fearful  signs  and  sights  from  heaven  ; 
yet  these  would  be  but  the  beginnings  of  sorrow  : 
then  that  His  disciples  would  be  delivered  up  to 
councils,  and  be  beaten  in  synagogues,  and  brought 
before  rulers  ;  but  that  the  Lord  would  be  with 
them  in  their  hour  of  peril.  In  the  meantime,  He 
adds,  that  the  Gospel  of  the  Kingdom  would  be 
preached  for  a  witness  throughout  the  Roman 
world  :  and  that,  in  coincidence  with  that  event, 
Jerusalem  would  be  encompassed  with  armies, — the 
abomination  of  desolation,  spoken  of  by  Daniel, 
standing  where  it  ought  not  on  holy  ground  :  that 
this  must  be  taken  by  His  disciples  as  a  warning 
to  flee  from  the  scene  of  approaching  tribulation  ; 
for  these  would  be  the  days  of  vengeance,  of  which 
the  Old  Testament  prophets  had  written, — such  days 


THE  DESTRUCTION  OF  JERUSALEM       17 

as  the  world  had  never  witnessed,  nor  ever  will  again 
in  all  time  :  that  Jerusalem  would  be  trodden  down 
by  the  Gentiles  ;  that  her  people  would  fall  by  the 
edge  of  the  sword,  and  be  led  away  captive  into  all 
nations  :  and  He  concludes  by  predicting  that  the 
eagles  of  the  conquerors  would  seize  upon  the 
carcase  of  their  fallen  commonwealth.^ 

Such  is  the  sum  of  those  great  prophecies,  of 
which  we  have  in  the  Arch  of  Titus  an  important 
witness  and  expositor ;  that  is,  of  the  event  in 
which  they  all  converge  :  and  in  Josephus'  History 
of  the  Jewish  War  we  have  a  testimony  no  less 
unexceptionable  ;  for  not  only  w^as  he  present,  as  a 
leader  or  as  a  captive,  throughout  the  whole  of  the 
great  conflict,  but  he  could  have  had  no  wish  to 
subserve  that  cause  to  which  his  History  had  so 
largely  contributed. 

When  our  Lord  uttered  these  predictions  '-^ 
Judaea  had  become  a  part  of  a  Roman  province, 
and  till  the  third  year  after  the  Ascension  was 
under  the  government  of  Pilate.  He  was  suc- 
ceeded by  seven  other  procurators  in  the  course 
of  the  next  thirty  years ;  under  whom  the  Jews 
had  much  to  endure  in  struggling  to  regain 
their  national  independence.  Two  of  these  rulers, 
Felix  and  Florus,  have  been   deeply  branded  by 

1  Matt.  xxiv.     Mark  xiii.     Luke  xxi.  ^  ,^,d,  33—64. 


1 8  THE   ARCH  OF   TITUS 

their  own  historian  for  malversation  in  their  high 
office ;  ^  though  they  were  not  the  only  ones, 
according  to  Josephus,  who  abused  their  authority 
to  the  basest  purposes.  In  fact,  the  whole  history 
of  this  procuratorship,  with  the  exception  chiefly 
of  the  early  part  of  it,  is  but  a  record  of  oppression 
and  extortion,  which  rose  at  length  to  so  intolerable 
a  height,  as  to  drive  the  Jews  into  a  desperate 
resistance  to  the  overwhelming  power  of  Rome. 

The  flames  of  the  revolt  broke  out  at  Ca^sarea, 
the  head-quarters  of  the  Roman  Government,  on 
Nero's  conferring  its  municipal  privileges  on  the 
Syrian  Gentiles  to  the  exclusion  of  the  Jews.^ 
This  was  a  great  and  grievous  wrong,  A  contest 
then  arose  there  about  a  synagogue  and  an  inter- 
ference w^ith  the  Jewash  w^orship,  which  was  quickly 
followed,  in  that  and  other  places,  by  tumults  and 
conflicts  of  various  kinds ;  sometimes  traceable  to 
Roman  violence,  in  others  to  the  blind  and  reckless 
fury  of  the  Zealots,  often  to  the  state  of  the  Jewish 
mind  in  general,  maddened  by  the  falling  fortunes 
of  their  country.  I  can  but  glance  at  these  events, 
so  far  as  the  subject  of  my  Lecture  may  require. 

Florus,  instead  of  vindicating  the  Jews,   in  the 
case  just  mentioned  at  Caesarea,  took  a  bribe  to 
protect   them,   and    left    the    city.       Then,    under 
^  Tacitus,  Hist.  V.  x.  ii.  ^  A.D.  66.  Bell.  Jiid.  II.  xiv.  4. 


THE  DESTRUCTION  OF  JERUSALEM        19 

pretext  of  the  emperor's  service,  he  plundered 
the  Temple  treasury  at  Jerusalem,  and  on  this 
exciting  a  violent  disturbance,  he  broke  into 
houses,  massacred  their  inmates,  scourged  and  even 
crucified  some  of  the  chief  citizens  ;  and,  after 
having  slaughtered,  in  a  collision  with  his  soldiers, 
a  large  number  of  the  irritated  populace,  he 
returned  to  his  residence  at  Caesarea.^ 

After  this  an  effort  was  made  by  Agrippa  to 
induce  the  people  to  submit  to  Florus,  till  the 
emperor  should  send  them  a  better  ruler;  but  they 
rejected  his  advice  with  scorn  and  violence :  nay, 
more,  the  priests  were  persuaded  by  the  Zealots  to 
refuse  the  admission  of  any  gift  or  sacrifice  that 
might  be  offered  to  the  Temple  by  a  foreigner. 
This  was  denounced  by  the  peace-party  as  nothing 
less  than  a  declaration  of  war  against  the  emperor, 
for  whom  they  had  been  used  to  offer  daily  sacri- 
fice, and  as  branding  also  their  city  with  impiety;'^ 
for  the  practice  of  receiving  offerings  from  foreign 
princes  was  of  long  standing  in  the  Jewish  Temple, 
and  was  expressly  sanctioned  by  the  law  of 
Moses.^  But  it  was  vain  to  reason  with  the  men 
of  this  party.  Florus  was  informed  of  the  state  of 
the  city  ;  but  so  little  did  he  care  for  its  distractions 

^  BelL  Jud,  It.  xiv.  2  /^/^_  lY.  xvii, 

'^  Numb.  XV.  14—16. 


20  THE  ARCH  OF   TITUS 

that  the  intelh'gence   was   welcome  news  to  him. 
These  tumults  served  to  screen  his  atrocities,  and 
to    prevent    complaints    against    him    being    sent 
to  Rome.^     Agrippa,   from  a  wish  to  serve  both 
nations,  sent  a  large  body  of  cavalry  to  keep  the 
peace ;    but   they    could     not    stand    against   the 
Zealots,   who   did    not    scruple   to   increase   their 
power  by  the  introduction  of  many  of  the  sicars  or 
brigands,  who  then  infested   the  country  in  great 
numbers.     With  these  they  proceeded   to  various 
acts  of  violence.    They  destroyed  Agrippa's  palace 
and  the  high  priest's  house.    They  burnt  the  public 
records  and    the  debtors'   contracts.      They  mas- 
sacred the  garrison  of  the  great    fortress  of  the 
Antonia,  at  the  north-west  angle  of  the  Temple 
platform ;  and,  after  putting  down  the  rival  band 
of  Manahem,  they  slaughtered,  under  a  pledge  of 
protection,  the  guards  that  had  fled  to  the  Royal 
Towers,  with  the  single  exception  of  Metilius,  their 
commander,  who  was    spared  on  his  engaging  to 
become  a  Jew.'^ 

On  the  same  day  the  Gentiles  in  Caesarea 
slaughtered  all  its  Jewish  population,  to  the  num- 
ber of  more  than  twenty  thousand  ;  an  atrocity 
which  so  roused  the  Jews  in  those  quarters,  that, 
forming  separate  bands  for  the  purpose,  they 
1  Belljnd.  II.  xiv.  3.  -  Ibid.  II.  xvii. 


THE   DESTRUCTION  OF  JERUSALEM       21 

fiercely  attacked  the  Gentile  population,  while  the 
Gentiles  as  fiercely  retorted  upon  them ;  nation 
against  nation,  as  our  Lord  had  predicted  amongst 
the  signs  of  the  coming  judgments  on  Jerusalem  ; 
till  every  town,  according  to  Josephus,  had  be- 
come, as  it  were,  two  hostile  camps.  At  length 
the  Syrian  president,  Cestius  Gallus,  deeming  it 
imprudent  to  be  longer  inactive,  while  the  Jews  in 
his  province  were  everywhere  in  arms,  advanced 
from  Antioch  with  the  twelfth  legion  and  a  large 
amount  of  other  troops  ;  and  sending  detachments 
to  Zabulon  and  Joppa,  and  into  Lower  Galilee  and 
Narbatene,  he  checked  the  insurrection  in  all  those 
places,  and  re-assembled  his  forces  at  Caesarea.^ 

Thence  he  advanced  to  Bethhoron  and  Gibeon. 
There  he  was  met  by  a  large  body  of  Jews,  under 
Simon,  son  of  Gioras,  who  fell  upon  the  Romans 
with  great  fury,  and  drove  them  back  with  con- 
siderable loss.  Cestius,  however,  soon  rallied  and 
advanced,  and  pitched  his  camp  upon  Scopus, 
about  a  mile  to  the  north  of  Jerusalem ;  and, 
attacking  the  Jews  with  all  his  force,  pursued 
them  even  to  the  gates  of  the  city,  and  established 
himself  within  the  outer  wall.  And  now,  at  least 
in  the  judgment  of  Josephus,  Cestius  might  have 
taken  the  city,  and  have  brought  the  war  at  once 
1  BcU.Jud.  II.  xviii. 


22  THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 

to  a  close,  had  he  not  been  prevented  by  Florus, 
who  had  no  wish  to  see  the  war  at  an  end.  After 
waituig,  however,  for  a  few  days,  without  effecting 
anything  decisive,  he  drew  off  his  troops,  and 
retired  to  Scopus,  whilst  the  Jews  sallied  forth 
and  harassed  his  retreat.^ 

The  next  day  Cestius,  with  the  Jews  in  pursuit 
of  him,  reached  his  former  encampment  at  Gibeon. 
Thence  he  was  compelled  to  retreat  to  Bethhoron  ; 
and  there  his  army  must  have  utterly  perished, 
driven  with  slaughter  down  the  deep  ravine,  but 
that,  under  cover  of  the  night,  he  succeeded  in 
effecting  his  escape  to  Antipatris,  with  the  loss  of 
more  than  five  thousand  men,  and  of  all  his  mili- 
tary engines ;  which  were  taken  to  Jerusalem  and 
turned  against  the  Romans  in  the  course  of  the 
ensuing  siege.^ 

It  is  remarkable  that  this  Bethhoron  is  the  spot 
where  the  Jews  obtained  their  first  great  victory 
over  the  five  confederate  kings  of  Canaan,  which 
led  to  their  conquest  of  the  whole  country.  This 
victory  over  Cestius  was  their  last,  at  an  interval 
of  nearly  fifteen  hundred  years,  and  on  the  eve  of 
their  expulsion  from  the  land  of  their  fathers. 

Josephus  remarks  upon  these  events,  that  if 
Cestius  had  then  taken  the  city,  the  Temple  would 
^  BclLJud.  II.  xix.  1—5.  -  Ibid.  11.  xix.  7—9. 


THE   DESTRUCTION  OF  JERUSALEM       23 

probably  have  survived ;  but  that,  owing  as  he 
thinks  to  the  people's  wickedness,  the  Lord  was 
even  then  so  estranged  from  His  sanctuary,  that 
He  hindered  the  war  from  coming  to  a  close.  May 
we  not  suppose,  without  presumption,  that  He  had 
also,  in  His  gracious  providence,  other  objects  in 
view  ?  For  after  this  defeat  of  Cestius  many  of 
the  more  respectable  Jews  abandoned  the  city,  as 
a  sinking  ship ;  and  many  Christians  did  the 
same,  acting  on  the  warning  which  the  Lord  had 
given  them,  and  in  apprehension  of  the  coming 
storm.i 

For  now,  encouraged  by  this  victory  over  Cestius, 
the  revolt  began  to  assume  a  more  important 
character,  under  leaders  of  great  ability  ;  especially 
Josephus,  who  had  under  his  command  the  strong 
town  of  Gamala,  on  the  east  of  the  Lake,  and 
who  was  also  president  of  both  Galilees :  2  and, 
in  short,  so  important  did  the  revolt  appear  at 
Rome,  that  Vespasian,  who  had  just  returned  from 

^  Mera  hk  rrjv  Keariov  crvfKpnpav  iroWol  Tcav  enicpavcdv  'lovSato)!', 
aa-Trep  (BaTrTiCofxevrjs  vews,  cnvevrjxovTo  ti]s  noXecos. — Be//.  Jlld.  II. 
xix.  6.  These  Jews,  who  '  swam,'  as  it  were,  out  of  the  city, 
are  supposed  to  be  the  'strangers'  whom  St.  John  speaks  of 
in  his  Third  Epistiej  who  had  migrated  with  him  at  this 
crisis  into  Asia  Minor ;  for  whom  he  pleads  so  earnestly  with 
Gaius,and  who  were  probably  soon  received  into  the  Christian 
Church. — Lampe's  Comment. in  Joan.YoX.  i.   Proleg.  i.  vii.  xvi. 

2  Bel/.Jud.  III.  iii. 


24  THE   ARCH  OF   TITUS 

Germany  and  Britain,  was  sent  by  Nero  to  put  it 
down  ;  and  in  a  few  months  was  joined  by  Titus, 
with  the  fifteenth  legion  and  other  reinforcements  ; 
forming  altogether  an  army  of  sixty  thousand 
men.^ 

As  soon  as  the  troops  were  organized  at  Ptole- 
mais,  they  advanced  into  the  interior,  and  burnt 
the  town  of  Gadara,  in  revenge  of  outrages  com- 
mitted against  Cestius  ;  and,  after  a  siege  of  forty 
days,  they  succeeded  in  taking  Jotapata,  with 
enormous  slaughter  and  a  multitude  of  prisoners  ; 
amongst  whom  was  their  leader,  Josephus  ;  who 
afterwards  became  a  great  favourite  of  Vespasian, 
and  even  adopted  the  Flavian  namer 

Then  other  towns  surrendered  to  the  Romans. 
Joppa,  now  again  in  revolt,  was  destroyed.-^  Tibe- 
rias, on  the  Lake,  submitted  to  Vespasian,  and 
Tarichsea,  at  its  south-west  corner,  was  taken  by 
Titus  after  a  very  hard  contest,  and  its  vast  popu- 
lation slaughtered  or  sold  :  a  conquest  which  was 
considered  of  so  much  importance  as  to  call  for 
special  notice  amongst  the  sculptures  on  the  Arch. 
After  this  and  other  bloody  conflicts  and  cap- 
tures, all  Galilee,  with  Gischala,  its  last  survivor, 
surrendered  to  the  Roman  arms.** 

1  BeU.Jiid.  III.  iv.  "^  Ibid.  iii.  \\\.  \\\\. 

"  A.D.  67.  '^  Ibid  III.  ix.  X. 


THE  DESTRUCTION  OF  JERUSALEM       25 

In  the  meantime,  Jerusalem  had  fallen  into  the 
hands  of  three  fierce  rival  factions,  and  was  suffer- 
ing especially  from  the  fury  of  the  Zealots ;  who, 
whilst  denouncing  all  others  as  enemies  of  their 
country,  were  themselves  chief  agents  of  its  ruin.^ 

Vespasian  now  began  to  turn  his  attention  to 
the  Trans-jordanic  towns  and  to  the  south,  and 
had  indeed  subdued,  with  the  exception  of  Jeru- 
salem, all  the  most  important  places  in  those 
quarters,  when  tidings  reached  him  of  the  death 
of  Nero,  and  of  Galba's  accession  to  the  throne. 
This  induced  him  to  defer  all  further  active 
measures,  whilst  he  sent  Titus  to  congratulate 
the  new  emperor,  and  to  receive  his  commands 
in  reference  to  the  war.^ 

Again,  in  the  course  of  a  few  months,  he  began 
to  put  the  army  in  motion,  when  the  news  arrived 
of  the  deposition  of  Vitellius,  who  had  succeeded 
Galba  and  Otho.^  Upon  this  the  legions  in  Judaea 
and  Egypt  declared  for  Vespasian's  elevation  to 
the  empire ;  and  accordingly,  sending  Titus  to 
reduce  the  Jewish  capital,  he  himself  set  out  for 
Rome.^ 

In  consequence  of   these  imperial  changes,  the 

war  was   suspended   for  nearly  a   year ;    but  this 

^  BcU.Jud.  IV.  vi.  2  jjjI^i  jy  yjjj   j^ 

3  A.D.  69.  *  Ibid.  IV.  xi. 


26  THE  ARCH  OF   TITUS 

was  no  relief  to  the  distracted  city,  where  faction 
raged  more  than  ever  under  Simon,  John,  and 
Eleazar ;  the  Assassin,  the  Tyrant,  and  the  Zealot, 
as  they  have  been  called.  Simon  had  possession 
of  the  Upper  Town,  John  of  the  Lower  Town  or 
Acra,  and  Eleazar  of  the  Temple  platform  ;  and 
thence  they  were  carrying  on  their  mutual  assaults, 
when  Titus  appeared  upon  the  heights  near 
Jerusalem,  with  four  legions  and  a  large  body 
of  auxiliaries,^ 

Now  it  was  time,  if  not  before,  for  all  that  would 
escape  from  the  great  impending  tribulation  to 
flee  to  the  mountains,  as  the  Lord  had  charged 
them.  ;  when  they  should  see  Jerusalem  encom- 
passed with  armies;  'the  abomination  of  desolation 
on  holy  ground.'  ^ 

This  portentous  phrase,  or  at  least  its  equivalent, 
was  first  applied  to  the  desecration  of  the  Temple, 
when  Antiochus  set  up  in  it  the  statue  of  Jupiter." 
Here  it  probably  refers  to  the  Roman  standards, 
with  their  tutelary  images  of  gods  and  emperors, 
surmounted  by  an  eagle  grasping  the  thunderbolt, 
which  were  afterwards  brought  into  the  Temple  by 
Titus  ;  and  which  some  writers  on  the  prophecy 

1  A.D.  70. — BelLJiid.  V.  i. — iii. 

2  Matt.  xxiv.  15,  16.     Mark  xiii.  14  ;  with  Luke  xxi.  20,  21. 
2  2  Maccab.  i.  54.     3  Maccab.  vi.  2.     Dan.  xi.  31. 


THE   DESTRUCTION  OF  JERUSALEM       27 

have  regarded  as  the  main  event  referred  to  in 
our  Lord's  words.  True  it  is,  that  act  of  Titus, 
which  we  shall  presently  have  to  notice,  was  '  the 
consummation  of  that  desolation '  which  he  was 
permitted  to  bring  upon  God's  House  ;  but  it  was 
rather  to  the  appearing  of  the  Roman  eagles  at 
the  head  of  their  legions,  near  the  city,  rivalling 
the  Temple  of  the  God  of  Israel,  that  our  Lord 
applied  the  language  of  the  prophet ;  1  for  the 
whole  territory,  and  especially  Mount  Olivet,  on 
which  He  was  standing  when  He  uttered  the 
prophecy,  and  on  which  the  tenth  legion  was 
afterwards  encamped,  was  considered  by  the  Jews 
as  holy  ground.'-^  As  objects  which  the  Romans  were 
in  the  practice  of  worshipping,  these  eagles  were 
an  abomination  to  the  Jews  ;  as  standards  round 
which  the  soldiers  rallied,  they  might  be  called 
*  the  abomination  that  maketh  desolate : '  the 
Romans  called  them  their  gods  of  battle/'     Their 

^  '  Talia  signa  Titus  conspicua  in  castris  suis  posuit,  quasi 
templum  Templo  Hierosolymitano  contrarium.  Nam  et 
Tacitus  alibi  ita  loquitur ;  Fulgentibus  aquilis  signisque  et 
simulacris  Deum,  in  modum  templi.' — Grotius,  Annotat.  ad 
Matt.  xxiv.  15. 

2  Bengel,  on  Matt.  xxiv.  15.  i  Maccab.  x.  31.  Bell.  Jud, 
V.  ii.  iii. 

^  '  Religio  Romanorum,'  says  Tertullian,  '  tota  Castrensis 
signa  veneratur,  signa  jurat,  signa  omnibus  Deis  pr^ponit.' 
— Apol.  adv.  Gentes.,  xvii.  Thus  z\ntony  is  represented  by 
Tacitus  as  imploring  their  help  :  '  Conversus   ad  signa  et 


28  THE  ARCH  OF   TITUS 

appearance  with  *  the  legions  encompassing  Jeru- 
salem,' was  to  be  a  sign  to  our  Lord's  disciples 
to  make  good  their  flight  from  the  devoted  city. 
Many  had  fled  on  the  invasion  of  Cestius,  though 
it  did  not  reach  the  terms  of  our  Lord's  prophecy. 
Now  the  disciples  could  not  doubt  that  the  days  of 
vengeance  were  near  at  hand  ;  and  in  following 
this  and  other  monitions, — especially  the  brief 
interval  then  afforded  them,  and  which  was  one  of 
the  most  remarkable  circumstances  of  the  crisis, — 
they  fled  to  Pella,  on  the  mountain  slopes  of 
Gilead  ;  w^hich,  as  under  Agrippa,  and  in  alliance 
with  the  emperor,  became  their  chief  asylum  in  the 
great  catastrophe.^ 

bellorum  Deos  orabat.' — Hist.  IV.  x.  And  Germanicus  is 
said  to  have  exhorted  his  soldiers  :  '  Trent,  sequerenturque 
Romanas  aves,  propria  legionum  niimina.' — Annal.  II.  xvii. 

^  This  well-known  interpretation,  which  is  adopted  by 
Grotius,  Wetstein,  Bengel,  Newcome,  Lange,  and  others, 
results  from  comparing  Matt.  xxiv.  15,  16,  with  Luke  xxi. 
20,  21.  It  has,  however,  been  questioned  in  two  of  the  most 
important  recent  commentaries  ;  but  not,  as  it  appears  to 
me,  with  success,  (i)  It  is  objected  that  to  ^deXvyfjca  must 
mean  a  profanation  by  the  Jews  themselves.  But  the  word 
is  applied,  as  we  have  seen,  i  Maccab.  i.  54,  to  a  statue 
which  was  set  up  by  heathen  hands  ;  and  Josephus  applies 
Dan.  ix.  27  to  the  desolation  by  the  Romans,  Antiq.  X.  xi. 
BfieXvy/xa  is  defined  by  Cyril  Alex,  in  Schleusner,  Lex.  Vet. 
Test.:  vrpa^LS  vrapa  rbv  7Tpoar]KovTa  \6yov  TrpaTToixevr),  Kai  Tvav 
(l8o)Xov,  kol  irav  eKTVTTCopa  dv6pa>nov  ovtco  eKoke'iTO  Trapa  'lovdaiois. 
(2)  It  is  objected  that  the  Roman  eagles  could  be  no  sign  to 
the  Jews,  having  been  seen  by  them  on  holy  ground  for  many 


THE  DESTRUCTION  OF  JERUSALEM       29 

Titus'  first  object,  on  arriving  at  Jerusalem,  was 
to  ascertain  the  inclinations  of  the  Jews  ;  for  he 
had  been  told  that  they  were  desirous  of  peace  ; 
but  on  his  attempting  to  take  a  survey  of  the  city, 
he  was  surrounded  by  a  body  of  Jewish  soldiers, 
and  escaped  with  difficulty  out  of  their  hands.^ 
At  length  he  began  to  bring  his  legions  nearer, 
which  induced  the  Jewish  factions  for  a  while  to 
unite,  and  to  join  in  frequent  sallies  against  the 
common  enemy  ;  but  they  were  soon  again  involved 

years,  and  even  at  the  time  when  the  prophecy  was  uttered. 
On  the  contrary,  we  are  told  by  Josephus  that,  when  at  peace 
with  the  Jews,  the  Romans  never  used  to  take  their  idol 
standards  into  Jerusalem,  Antiq.  xviii.  iii. ;  that  when  Pilate 
did  so  he  was  obUged  immediately  to  remand  them  to 
C^sarea,  Ibid,  and  Bell  Jud.  11.  ix. ;  and  that  when  Vitellius 
was  about  to  march  through  Judaea,  soon  after  our  Lord 
delivered  this  prophecy,  he  sent  his  forces  by  another  route, 
in  deference  to  the  representations  of  the  Jews,  who  said 
that  the  laws  of  their  country  would  not  tolerate  the  presence 
of  these  idols.  Antiq.  XVIII.  v.  (3)  It  is  objected  that  tottos 
ayios  can  mean  only  the  Temple.  But  is  there  not  here  an 
obvious  distinction  between  totto?  a-^ios  and  ro  ifpoi/?  Our 
Lord's  citation  is  from  Dan.  LXX.  Cod.  Alex.  ix.  27 :  'EttI  ro^ 
iepov  ^beXvyfxa  Tcov  iprjfjioio-ecop  e(TTai.  Instead,  however,  of  eVt 
TO  Upov,  we  have  the  indefinite  eV  t6it(o  dyia.  The  disciples 
were  not  to  wait  till  the  /SSeXwy/xa  was  eVl  to  Upov ;  then  it 
would  be  too  late  to  fly;  but  as  soon  as  it  appeared  eV  tottco 
&yi(o,  they  were  to  depart.  (4)  No  other  fulfilment  of  the 
prophecy  has  been  suggested  which  appears  to  be  satisfactory 
to  the  judgment  even  of  the  objectors.  (5)  As  to  the 
disciples'  flight  to  Pella,  see  Eusebius,  Hisi.  Ecd.  ill.  v.; 
Epiphanius,  De  Mensuris  XV.,  and  Dean  Stanley's  Palestine, 
C.  viii.  ^  Bell.  Jud.  v.  ii. 


30  THE  ARCH   OF   TITUS 

in  bloody  strife,  which  ended  in  the  overthrow  of 
Eleazar's  party,  and  in  John's  obtaining  possession 
of  the  Temple  platform  :  conduct  so  prevalent 
throughout  the  siege,  as  to  give  some  colour  to 
the  remark  of  Josephus :  '  That  sedition  subdued 
the  city,  and  the  Romans  the  sedition  ;  a  sedition 
much  stronger  than  her  walls.'  ^ 

The  siege  meanwhile  was  earnestly  prosecuted. 
Titus  pitched  his  camp  on  Scopus,  where  Cestius 
had  encamped  three  years  before :  the  tenth  legion 
occupied  Mount  Olivet,  and  other  forces  were 
stationed  on  the  west.  And  as  this  was  now  the 
paschal  season  the  city  was  unusually  full.  Jo- 
sephus reckons  that  there  might  have  been  in  it 
more  than  two  millions  seven  hundred  thousand 
souls,  because  more  than  that  number  are  said 
to  have  been  there  at  a  paschal  census  a  few 
years   previous.-      Simon    had   still    possession   of 

1  Bell.  Jiid.  V.  vi. 

2  A  rough,  and  it  may  be  an  exaggerated  estimate,  founded 
on  the  number  of  lambs  which  are  said  to  have  been  offered 
at  the  passover,  a.d.  63,  of  which  an  account  was  taken  by 
order  of  Cestius.  According  to  one  manuscript  they  amounted 
to  256,000;  according  to  another,  to  255,600.  There  were 
probably  at  least  ten  partakers  of  each  lamb,  and,  in  addition 
to  these,  there  were  a  great  many  other  persons  who  were 
ceremonially  unfit.  Bell.  Jiid.  VI.  ix.  It  should  also  be  borne 
in  mind  that,  at  this  great  festival,  the  suburbs  of  the  city 
were  generally  covered  with  tents  and  other  temporary  struc- 
tures, for  the  reception  of  the  multitudes  who  frequented  it. 


THE'^DESTRUCTION  OF  JERUSALEM       31 

the  Upper  Town,  with  about  fifteen  thousand 
soldiers ;  John  held  the  Temple  with  about  seven 
thousand  ;  and  on  Ophel,  the  southern  ridge  of 
Mount  Moriah,  and  in  the  Valley  of  the  Tyro- 
poeon,  they  waged  their  bloody  conflicts  from  day 
to  day.^ 

Titus,  having  completed  his  arrangements,  at- 
tacked the  outer  wall  of  the  city,  which  soon  gave 
way  before  his  engine,  the  Conqueror ;  and  he 
advanced  his  camp  into  the  New  Town,  or  Bezetha, 
and  took  up  his  position  at  the  north-west  corner, 
where  the  Assyrians  under  Sennacherib  had  for- 
merly encamped.  From  that  point  he  extended 
his  forces  even  to  the  ridge  of  the  Valley  of  the 
Kedron  ;  the  district  which  has  since  been  the 
ground  of  attack  by  the  Saracen,  the  Crusader, 
and  the  Turk.  On  the  fifth  day  from  the  reduc- 
tion of  the  first  wall,  Titus  assailed  the  second ; 
which  formed  the  outward  boundary  of  the  Lower 
City,  from  the  Gate  of  Gennath  to  the  tower  of  the 
Antonia ;  and  he  entered  through  the  breach  with 
a  thousand  men,  the  band  which  he  usually 
retained  about  his  person.  From  this  position  he 
was  soon  driven,  but  he  recovered  his  ground  in 
a  few  days,  and,  after  demolishing  the  second  wall, 
began  to  think  of  attacking  the  inner  one  ;  the 
1  BdLJud.  N.  ii. — vi. 


32  THE  ARCH  OF   TITUS 

Jews  still  retaining  the  Upper  City,  the  Temple, 
and  the  Antonia.^ 

Well  aware  of  the  strength  of  their  position, 
Titus  sent  Josephus  to  confer  with  his  country- 
men, and  to  propose  terms  of  surrender.  But  his 
proposal  met  with  no  response  but  curses,  jeers, 
and  missiles  from  their  engines,  though  their  intes- 
tine difficulties  were  rapidly  increasing,  from  the 
failure  of  their  stores  and  the  prospect  of  a  famine, 
which  was  gaining  upon  them  every  day;  a 
calamity  which  the  factions  had  hastened  on  by 
their  reckless  destruction  of  each  other's  granaries.'- 

At  length,  with  a  view  to  force  them  to  sur- 
render, Titus  began  to  scourge  and  crucify  those 
who,  in  order  to  escape  the  famine,  came  over 
to  the  Roman  camp.  Thus  hundreds  perished 
every  day ;  Titus  continuing  to  warn  their  leaders 
not  to  compel  him  to  destroy  their  town  and 
Temple;  suggestions  which  were  answered  only  by 
declaring, — That  they  preferred  death  to  slavery, 
and  that  their  Temple  would  be  saved  by  Him 
who  dwelt  in  it ;  in  whose  hands  was  the  issue  of 
the  war.^ 

So    indeed    they   persisted    in   declaring  to  the 
last;  sustained  moreover  by  a  firm  belief  in  what 
Josephus    calls    an    ambiguous    prophecy :    That 
1  Bell.  Jud.  V.  vii.  viii.  -  Ibid.  V.  iv.         ^  //,/^/^  y_  y\^ 


THE   DESTRUCTION   OF  JERUSALEM       33 

about  this  time,  One  from  their  country  would 
obtain  the  dominion  of  the  world.^  This,  says  he, 
they  applied  to  themselves ;  and  many  of  their 
wise  men  were  deceived  in  their  judgment  of  it ; 
for,  in  his  opinion,  it  plainly  indicated  the  supre- 
macy of  Vespasian,  who  had  been  proclaimed 
emperor  in  Judsea.^ 

The  prophecy  is  that  in  the  Book  of  Micah, 
which  the  Sanhedrin  adduced  when  Herod  de- 
manded of  them  where  the  promised  Christ  would 
be  born.'^  It  seems,  in  a  vague  and  mutilated 
form,  to  have  been  widely  known  amongst  the 
heathen,  and  to  have  given  rise  to  those  well- 
known  expectations  which  Roman  writers,  as  well 
as  Josephus,  referred  to  Vespasian's  elevation  to 
the  throne.  Had  it  not  been  shorn  of  its  com- 
mencement and  its  close, — the  rise  of  this  great 
Ruler  in  Bethlehem  and  His  goings  forth  from  the 
days  of  old,  those  manifestations  of  His  divine 
character, — the  prophecy  could  never  have  been 
made  to  minister  to  the  pride  and  folly  of  a 
Roman  emperor.* 


To  he  €7rdpav  avrovs  fxaXiara  rrpos  rov  7r6\ep,ov,  rjv  xP1<^y^os 
cificpi^okos  ofxoLcos  ev  Tols  lepols  evprjixevos  ypap-paaiv,  ms  Kara  tov 
Kacpov  eKclvov  dno  rrjs  x^opa?  Tij  avriau  (ip^ei  rrjs  olKovp.€vqs. — 
Bell.Jtui.  VI.  V. 

2  Bell.Jud.  VI.  V.  4.  3  Matt.  ii.  1—6. 

*  Micah  V.  2.     This  prophecy,  thus  stript  of  its  beginning 

C 


34  THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 

Titus,  on  the  rejection  of  his  proposal  to  sur- 
render, set  his  men  again  to  work,  raising  mounds 
and  planting  engines  against  the  Antonia,  and  in 
several  other  quarters  ;  but  their  work  was  under- 
mined and  burnt  by  the  besieged.^  Accordingly, 
when  all  these  efforts  failed,  he  proposed  to  raise 
a  wall  all  round  the  city,  that  thus,  by  increasing 
the  pressure  of  the  famine,  he  might  effect  an 
easier,  perhaps  an  earlier  conquest.- 

No  sooner  was  the  project  formed  than  it  was 
done.  The  work  was  distributed  to  the  whole  army 
in  shares  ;  and,  impelled  by  a  sort  of  preternatural 
enthusiasm,  the  Wall  was  accomplished  in  three 
days.  Legion  vied  with  legion,  and  cohort  with 
cohort  ;  nay,  every  soldier  in  the  army,  says  Jo- 
sephus,  private,  decurion,  centurion,  tribune,  strove 
to  please  those  immediately  above  him  ;  whilst  the 
rivalry  of  the  tribunes  extended  to  the  general 
officers,  and  Titus  fostered  the  rivalry  of  these, 
going  round  in  person  often  every  day,  and  seeing 
how  the  work  was  going  on.^ 

The  Wall  commenced  at  the  tent  of  Titus.  It 
thence  went  eastward  to  the  lower  part  of  the  New 


and  its  end,  seems  to  be  the  prediction  referred  to  by  Tacitus, 
Hist.  V.  xiii.  '  Eo  ipso  tempore  fore,  ut  valesceret  oriens 
profectique  Judaea  rerum  potirentur.' 

1  Bell.Jnd.  v.  vi.  -  Ibid.  V.  xi.  xii.         ^  Jl)i^l  y.  ^ii. 


777^  DESTRUCTION  OF  JERUSALEM       35 

Town,  and  across  the  Kedron  to  the  Mount  of 
Olives  ;  thence  towards  the  south  to  the  rock 
called  Peristereon,  which  is  probably  the  site  of 
the  Tombs  of  the  Prophets.  It  thence  went  over 
the  adjoining  hill,  which  overhangs  the  ravine  near 
Siloam  ;  thence,  towards  the  west,  to  the  Valley  of 
the  Fountain ;  from  whence  it  ascended  to  the 
Tomb  of  Ananus  ;  and  then,  taking  in  the  mount 
where  Pompey  had  encamped,  it  turned  to  the 
north,  as  far  as  the  hamlet  or  House  of  Erebinths ; 
and  then  enclosing  Herod's  monument,  it  rejoined 
the  camp  of  Titus,  whence  it  had  started.^ 

This  record  of  the  Wall  is  one  of  great  interest, 
especially  in  its  connexion  with  our  Lord's  prophecy. 
Though  so  ancient  a  topographical  document,  its 
line  may  be  traced  with  tolerable  certainty  through 
all  the  places  above-mentioned,  except  the  site  of 
Pompey's  camp  and  that  of  the  hamlet  on  the 
north  of  it.  This  encampment  was  evidently  on 
the  west  of  the  city  ;  where  Pompey  may  probably 
have  halted  for  a  time,  as  he  advanced  from  Jericho 
up  the  Valley  of  Hinnom,  till  he  finally  took  up  his 
position  on  the  north,  at  the  only  point  from  which 
the  city  was  assailable  :  or,  as  it  has  been  suggested,^ 

1  Bell.  Jud.  V.  xii.  2. 

2  Smith's  Diet,  of  the  Bible,  s.  v.  Jerusalem,  vol,  i.  p. 
1003.      Strabo,    Tacitus,    and    Dion    Cassius   also   mention 


36  THE  ARCH  OF   TITUS 

after  he  had  taken  up  that  position,  he  may  have 
stationed  a  portion  of  his  forces  on  the  west,  as 
Titus  did  under  similar  circumstances.  With, 
however,  no  other  account  of  this  encampment  than 
the  passing  notice  in  this  record  of  the  Wall,  we 
cannot  determine  its  exact  site.  Nor  can  we  settle 
that  of  the  hamlet  beyond  it :  Reland  merely 
mentions  its  existence  without  attempting  to  give 
its  locality.  It  was  probably  a  group  of  two  or 
three  granaries,  as  the  name  indeed  implies.^ 

The  Wall  itself  was  probably  similar  to  those 
which  the  Romans  generally  constructed  in  their 
sieges.  The  word  in  Josephus  may  be  any  kind  of 
wall ;  that  in  the  Evangelist,  which  is  rendered  a 
Trench,  signifies  more  than  a  mere  excavation.  It 
signifies,  as  Raphel  has  fully  shown,  a  rampart  of 
wooden  piles  or  stakes,  which  were  fixed  in  and 
wattled  on  a  mound  of  earth,  to  which  the  earth 
from  the  trench  of  course  contributed.-  And  it  is 
remarkable  that  our  Lord,  in  this  instance,  as  well 
as  in  His  prediction  of  '  the  abomination  of  desola- 


Pompey's  siege,  but  they  say  nothing  of  any  encampment 
except  that  on  the  north  of  the  city. 

1  Me;(pi  Kcoju,?;?  rii/6j,  ^EpelSivOoiv  ohos  KaXcirni.  Domus 
cicerum.     Palastina^  vol.  ii.  p.  766. 

2  See  Raphel's  elaborate  note  on  x«i"«^5  and  on  our  Lord's 
words,  TrepijBaXovoLv  ol  ix^ pot  (tov  x^p^Ka  (rot.  Annotat.  171  Ltic. 
xix.  43.     Josephus  uses  rdxos,  and  neptTetxiC^iv. 


THE  DESTRUCTION  OF  JERUSALEM       37 

tion,'  cites  the  words  of  an  Old  Testament  prophecy, 
which  had  probably  received  a  partial  fulfilment  in 
the  invasion  of  Jerusalem  by  the  Assyrians;  leaving, 
however,  many  details  to  be  realized  in  the  still 
more  comprehensive  Roman  siege.  ^ 

And  now  the  Wall  being  carried  round  the  city, 
with  towers  for  garrisons  at  frequent  intervals,  and 
with  guards  in  them  on  duty  by  day  and  by  night, 
so  as  to  prevent  all  possibility  of  escape,  the  misery 
of  the  captives  soon  reached  its  height.  Famine 
raged  there,  and  death  in  all  its  horrors.  The  dead, 
too  numerous  to  be  buried  within  the  walls,  were 
cast  over  into  the  ravines ;  and  we  are  told,  that  as 
Titus  went  round  the  city,  and  saw  them  full  of 
dead  bodies,  in  a  state  that  excited  horror  and 
disgust,  he  groaned  aloud,  and  called  God  to 
witness  that  it  was  not  his  doing.^ 

^  Isaiah  xxix.  3,  4.  Kat  kv/cXcoo-co  eVi  o-e,  kcli  (SaXw  Trepl  ai 
xdpaKa,  Koi  drjaco  TvepX  ere  jrvpyovs'  Koi  TaTveLvco9r](T0VTai  ds  rrjv  yr}v 
OL  Xoyoi  aoVi  Kcii  els  rrjvyrjV  oi  Xoyot  aov  hvaovraC  kul  ecroirai  cos- 
01  (f)oivovvT€S  €K  T^s-  yrji  T]  (ficovr]  (Tov,  Kol  Trpos  TO  e8a<pos  rj  cf)(ovr]  aov 
do-BevTjaei.  Many  early  writers  have  noticed  our  Lord's 
adoption  of  this  LXX.  version  of  the  prophecy ;  which, 
compared  with  Josephus'  account  of  the  capture  of  Simon 
and  his  companions  {Bell.  Jiid.  Vil.  ii.),  affords  a  curious  and 
interesting  illustration  of  what  Bacon  calls,  '  The  germinant 
accomplishment  of  prophecies,  extending  throughout  many 
ages,  though  their  height  and  fulness  may  refer  to  one.' 
Adv.  of  Learning.,  Book  ii.  Vitringa  takes  the  same  view 
of  it. 

2  Bell.  Jiid.  v.  xii. 


38  THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 

Yet  what  was  this  but  the  '  tyrant's  plea,'  how- 
ever it  might  satisfy  himself  or  others  ?  Why,  if 
he  really  pitied  their  sufferings,  did  he  drive  to 
this  extremity  a  brave  people,  whose  only  crime, 
so  far  as  he  was  cognizant,  was  that  of  standing  up 
for  their  national  liberty  ?  This  '  Darling  and  de- 
light of  all  the  world,'  though  such  was  the  current 
phrase  of  his  admirers,  was  but  a  strange  phenome- 
non, as  Niebuhr  remarks.^  Whatever  claim  he 
may  have  had  to  the  title,  as  compared  with 
persons  of  his  own  age  and  order,  we  look  in  vain 
for  any  just  ground  for  it,  even  in  the  partial  pages 
of  Josephus. 

Still  we  are  told  that  he  wished  to  save  the  city: 
and  having  heard  that  the  daily  sacrifice  had 
ceased,  and  that  the  people  were  in  consequence 
greatly  disheartened,  he  proposed  to  John  of 
Gischala,  who  held  the  Antonia,  to  come  down  and 
terminate  the  war,  without  involving  the  Temple 
in  ruin.  'If,'  said  he,  'you  will  but  change  the 
scene  of  conflict,  no  Roman  shall  approach  or 
profane  the  holy  places  :  nay,  I  will  save  them 
even  against  your  will.'  - 

This,  like    all    his    previous    proposals,  was   re- 

1  Suetonius,  Tit.  Flav.  Vesp.  i. ;  Niebuhr's  Roinc^  by 
Schmitz,  vol.  ii.  p.  242. 

2  Bell.  J  ltd.  VI.  ii. 


THE  DESTRUCTION  OF  JERUSALEM      39 

jected.  Upon  which,  as  he  could  not  bring  up  all 
his  forces,  owing  to  the  confined  nature  of  the 
ground,  Titus  selected  the  best  men  of  each 
century,  and  ordered  them,  under  command  of 
Cerealius,  to  attack  the  Jewish  garrison  the  night 
following.  All  the  night  he  watched  the  conflict, 
as  did  also  the  Jewish  chief;  and  the  struggle 
continued,  neither  party  yielding,  till  near  the 
middle  of  the  next  day.^ 

In  the  meantime  another  division  of  Romans, 
having  broken  through  the  foundations  of  the 
Antonia,  had  forced  a  wide  ascent  as  far  as  the 
Temple  ;  ^  though  they  suffered  severely  from  the 
resistance  of  the  Jews,  who  fought  with  all  the 
vigour  and  daring  of  despair.  At  length  the 
Jews  were  driven  into  the  Temple ;  from  which 
they  then  cut  off  all  connexion  with  the  Antonia, 
breaking  and  burning  the  colonnades  that  had 
connected  them  ;  severing,  as  it  were,  the  infected 
limbs. 

The  sequel  is  but  a  tale  of  misery  and  horror. 
The  fighting  still  continued  in  the  outer  courts 
of  the  Temple,  while  the  people  of  all  classes 
throughout  the  city  were  reduced  to  the  most 
dreadful  and  disgusting  expedients  to  lengthen 
out  a  miserable  life.  They  fiercely  contended  for 
1  Bell.JiuL  VI.  ii.  -  July  17,  A.D.  70. 


40  THE  ARCH  OF   TITUS 

everything  like  food.  They  seized  on  what  even 
brutes  would  refuse ;  and  an  event  occurred,  at 
this  crisis,  which  has  been  justly  deemed  the  climax 
of  this  terrific  siege  ;  an  event  which  had  been  pre- 
dicted fifteen  hundred  years  before,  as  one  that 
would  befall  them  in  the  sequel  of  their  history ; 
when,  having  forsaken  the  God  of  their  fathers, 
and  the  'fear  of  His  glorious  and  fearful  Name,' 
He  would  bring  against  them  from  afar  '  a  nation 
of  fierce  countenance/  ^  which  would  besiege  them 
in  all  their  gates.  I  refer  to  the  story  of  the  Jewish 
mother  who,  having  been  strlpt  of  all  her  property 
and  food,  was  discovered  by  the  soldiers  to  have 
killed  her  own  infant,  and  to  have  even  devoured 
part  of  it.  The  monstrous  deed  was  told  through- 
out the  city,  and  told  also  in  the  Roman  camp. 
Some  pitied  her  ;  some  would  not  believe  it ;  in 
some  it  only  added  to  their  hatred  of  the  Jews  : 
Titus  declaring,  as  he  had  done  before,  that  he 
forsooth  was  innocent  in  this  matter.- 

Well  might  our  Lord,  on  His  way  to  Calvary, 

^  Deut.  xxviii.  49 — 59.  Thus,  according  to  Livy,  the  Sam- 
nites  described  the  eariy  Romans  :  '  Oculos  sibi  Romanorum 
ardere  visos,  aiebant,  vesanosque  vultus  et  furentia  ora  ;  inde 
plus,  quam  ex  alia  ulla  re,  terroris  ortum.  Quern  terrorem 
non  pugncE  solum  eventu,  sed  nocturna  profectione,  confessi 
sunt.' — Hist.  VII.  xxxiii. 

^  BelLJud.  VI.  ill. 


THE  DESTRUCTION  OF  JERUSALEM      41 

say  to  the  weeping  women  of  Jerusalem,  '  Weep 
not  for  Me,  but  for  yourselves,  and  for  your 
children.'  Well  may  we  suppose  Him,  with  His 
knowledge  of  all  prophecy,  and  His  prescience  of 
this  unparalleled  siege,  to  have  had  this  deed  of 
horror  in  view,  when  He  spoke  of  the  woe  that 
was  hanging  over  the  mother  and  the  suckling  in 
those  days.i 

Titus  was  now  more  than  ever  anxious  to 
bring  this  hateful  war  to  an  end.  To  stand 
thus  baulked,  with  his  baffled  legions,  before  this 
*  hemmed  and  famishing  Jerusalem '  was  no  glory 
to  himself,  or  to  the  Roman  arms,'^  and  after  six 
days'  fruitless  efforts  to  force  his  way  through  the 
western  wing  of  the  Temple,  he  ordered  the  gates 
to  be  set  on  fire.  The  next  day  he  had  it  extin- 
guished, and  held  a  council  of  war  to  determine 
whether  the  Temple  should  be  saved  or  not.  Many 
in  the  council  were  against  saving  it,  as  they 
thought  it  would  be  always  a  rallying-place  for  the 


1  Luke  xxiii.  28,  29. 

2  So  Tacitus  describes  the  feelings  of  Titus  and  his  army 
at  this  juncture  :  '  Romani  ad  oppugnandum  versi,  neque 
enim  dignum  videbatur,  famem  hostium  opperiri,  Posce- 
bantque  pericula,  pars  virtute,  multi  ferocia  et  cupidine  pr£e- 
miorum.  Ipsi  Tito  Roma  et  opes  voluptatesque  ante  oculos  ; 
ac,  ni  statim  Hierosolyma  conciderent,  morari  videbantur.' — 
Hist.  V.  xi. 


42  THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 

Jews,  who  would  never  cease  to  be  disaffected.^ 
Still  Titus  persisted  in  his  wish  to  save  the  Temple, 
as  a  trophy  which  the  Romans  might  well  be 
proud  of,  and  which  seems  to  have  moved  even 
his  '  Stoic  pride.' 

Nor  can  we  be  surprised  at  his  reluctance. 
Nothing,  says  Josephus,  was  wanting  in  the 
structure  of  the  Temple  likely  to  captivate  the 
mind  and  eye  :  and  though  we  cannot  but  regret 
that  he  has  not  given  us  some  information  as  to  the 
style  of  its  architecture,^  he  has  told  us  much  of 
this    magnificent    edifice,    which   we   should    seek 

1  Bell.Jud.  VI.  iv. 

^  There  are  two  passages  in  Josephus  which  are  supposed 
to  refer  to  this  subject,  (i)  He  says  that  the  outer  gate,  which 
led  to  the  sanctuary,  was  of  Corinthian  brass,  and  much  sur- 
passed in  worth  the  gold  and  silver-gilt  ones.  M/a  8e  77  e^oodev 
Tov  veoo  KopivSiov  ;)(aXKoD,  ttoXv  rfj  rifxfj  ras  Kcirapyvpovs  /cat 
TrepLxpvo-ovs'vTTcpdyovo-a. — BelL  Jiid.  V.  v.  3.  This,  however, 
refers  only  to  the  material  of  which  this  gate  was  made  ;  that 
costly  compound  of  silver,  gold,  and  brass,  called  Aes  Corin- 
thiacum  ;  or  of  gold  and  brass,  called  Aurichalcum.  See 
Hoffman,  Lex.  s.  vv.  (2)  In  his  A7itiqiiities^  Josephus  says 
that  the  heads  of  the  columns  in  the  south  colonnade  of  the 
Temple  were  finished  off  with  sculptures,  after  the  Corinthian 
manner.  KiavoKpdvcov  avrols  Kara  tov  Kopivdiov  rporrov  ene^eip- 
yao-pevctiv  yXvcfiois. — Aittiq.  XV.  xi.  He  says  nothing  of  the 
three  other  sides  of  the  Temple  ;  and  it  is  doubtful  whether 
Kara  tov  Kopivdiov  Tponov  amounts  to  what  we  should  call 
'of  the  Corinthian  order.'  In  another  place  he  applies  the 
word  KopivBicos  to  the  roofing  of  Solomon's  palace.— ^z///^. 
VIII.  v. 


THE  DESTRUCTION  OF  JERUSALEM       43 

in  vain  in  any  other  writer.  He  speaks  of  its 
imposing  position  on  the  platform  of  the  lofty 
eastern  hill,  hanging  over  the  valley  of  the  Ke- 
dron  ;  of  its  double  colonnade  of  thirty  cubits' 
breadth,  and,  including  the  Antonia,  six  furlongs 
long ;  its  gates  and  doors  of  vast  dimensions,  over- 
laid with  gold  and  silver ;  its  pavements  of  various 
kinds  of  marble;  its  cedar  roofs  and  ceihngs  of 
exquisite  workmanship  ;  its  sacred  enclosures,  court 
within  court,  each  ascending  higher  than  the  outer 
one,  each  increasing  in  local  sanctity,  according  to 
the  theory  of  the  Temple  ritual,  till  they  reached 
the  Holy  Place,  with  its  symbolical  services,^  and  the 
Holy  of  the  Holy  within  its  veils  ;  never  intruded 
on  by  footstep,  touch,  or  sight.^  As  to  its  exterior, 
as  seen  from  Mount  Olivet,  it  must,  from  the  pecu- 
liar construction  of  its  courts,   have   been  visible 

1  Bell.Jud.  V.  V.  5.  'Eve(f)aivov,  K.T.X.  But  when  Josephus 
tells  us  that  the  Candlestick  symbolized  the  seven  planets, 
and  the  Shewbread  loaves  the  circle  of  the  zodiac,  we  can- 
not but  recognize  a  vicious  system  of  Typology  ;  which,  how- 
ever it  may  have  been  advocated  by  Philo,  and  by  greater 
names  than  his,  has  been  very  justly  condemned  by  Bahr;  as 
placing  the  symbols  of  the  Mosaic  religion  substantially  on  a 
footing  with  those  of  heathenism,  and  employing  both  alike 
in  the  service  of  a  mere  Nature-worship.  See  Fairbairn's 
Typology  of  Script m^e^  vol.  ii.  p.  242. 

2  Bell.  Jud.  v.  V.  5.  Of  course  this  statement  must  be 
understood  in  a  general  sense,  and  subject  to  the  well-known 
exceptions  referred  to  in  Hebrews  ix.  7?  -5- 


44  THE  ARCH   OF  TITUS 

far  above  its  walls  and  cloisters ;  and  its  upper 
front  was  covered  with  plates  of  gold,  which  shone 
with  fiery  radiance  in  the  morning  sun.  Milton 
notices  this  view  of  the  Temple,  and  had  evidently 
in  his  mind  the  striking  image  with  which  Josephus 
closes  his  description.^ 

'  The  holy  City  hfted  high  her  towers, 
And  higher  yet  the  glorious  Temple  reared 
Her  pile,  far  off  appearing  like  a  mount 
Of  alabaster,  topped  with  golden  spires.' ^ 

But  all  in  vain  was  the  desire  to  save  it.  The 
priests  had  heard,  a  few  weeks  before,  on  entering 
the  Temple  on  the  night  of  the  Pentecost,  the  voice, 
as  of  a  multitude, — *We  are  departing  hence.' ^ 
Nay,  our  Lord,  as  we  have  seen,  had  declared  to 
the  people,  when  about  to  take  His  final  leave  of 

1  Bell.Jud.  V.  V.  6. 

2  Paradise  Regai7ied,  iv.  545 — 548. 

^  Kara  6e  Tr]v  eopTrjv,  ^  UeprrjKoaTT]  KaX^lrai,  vvKToop  ol  lepds 
irapikOovrcs  et?  ro  evhov  Upov,  coanep  uvtols  e6os  rjv  npos  tcis 
XeLTfivpyiaS)  TvpwTov  pev  KLvr^aecos  avTiKa^ecrdat  eipacrav  Kal 
KTVTTOV,  peTci  8e  ravra  (pcovTJs  ddpoas,  Meral^aipopev  ivrev6ev. 
— Bell.Jud.  VI.  V.  3.  I  have  adopted  Cardwell's  reading, 
which  was  probably  that  of  Tacitus  :  '  Expassce  repente  de- 
lubri  fores  et  audita  major  humana  vox,  Excedere  Deos : 
simul  ingens  motus  excedentium.' — Hist.  V.  xiii.  Different 
opinions  will,  of  course,  be  formed  of  such  an  incident  as  this  : 
when,  however,  I  consider  what  this  Temple  was — its  ante- 
cedents, historical,  prophetical,  typical — I  can  hardly,  with 
Lardner,  regard  this  story  as  nothing  more  than  an  imitation 
of  a  heathen  legend. 


THE  DESTRUCTION  OF  JERUSALEM      45 

the  Temple,— That  their  House  would  be  left  unto 
them  desolate.  And  desolate  it  was  thenceforward, 
in  the  truest  and  most  pathetic  sense  of  His  words. 
For,  though  the  Jews  retained  it  for  many  years, 
and  continued  also  to  enrich  and  adorn  it,  up  to  the 
very  eve  of  its  destruction,  its  doom  was  sealed,  its 
desolation  had  begun  with  the  departure  of  that 
Divine  Presence,  which  had  shed  upon  it  a  greater 
glory  than  the  glory  of  the  former  Temple  of 
Solomon,  even  in  its  brightest  day.  And  now  too 
was  the  anniversary  of  that  day  of  mourning,  so 
darkly  marked  for  ages  in  the  Hebrew  calendar, 
on  which  that  former  Temple  had  been  burnt. ^ 

Titus  had  withdrawn  into  the  Antonia,  deter- 
mined the  next  morning,-  at  break  of  day,  to  assault 
the  Temple  with  his  whole  force.  The  Jews,  after 
a  short  breathing-time,  once  more  attacked  the 
besiegers  ;  but  the  Romans  turned  them,  and  drove 
them  in  ;  and,  after  a  conflict  with  the  Temple- 
guards,  penetrated  even  into  the  sanctuary:  when  a 
soldier  snatched  a  brand  from  the  blazing  timber, 
and,  lifted  up  by  one  of  his  com.panions,  threw  it 
into  one  of  the  surrounding  apartments;  which 
immediately  took  fire.  The  Jews,  on  seeing  the 
flames  ascending,  rushed  to  the  rescue  with  a 
piteous  outcry.  Titus,  as  soon  as  he  knew  what 
^  Bell.  Jnd.  Vl.  iv.  5.  -  Aug.  5,  A.D.  70. 


46  THE  ARCH  OF   TITUS 

had  happened,  ran  to  the  spot  to  arrest  the  fire, 
with  his  officers  and  soldiers,  all  amazed ;  and 
called  upon  the  men  to  extinguish  the  flames.  But 
neither  threats  nor  persuasion  could  avail.  They 
pretended  not  to  hear  his  orders,  and  called  upon 
each  other  to  extend  the  conflagration.  Many,  in 
their  impetuous  rush  into  the  Temple,  were  crushed 
to  death  by  their  own  comrades  ;  many  perished 
with  their  opponents  in  the  ruins.  The  Jews,  within 
the  Temple,  were  most  of  them  unarmed,  and  were 
instantly  butchered  wherever  they  were  caught. 
The  steps  of  the  altar  flowed  with  blood,  and  the 
dead  were  crowded  round  it  in  heaps.  The  fire, 
in  the  meantime,  was  spreading  everywhere  ;  but 
as  it  had  not  reached  the  Holy  Place  as  yet,  Titus, 
with  the  help  of  the  captain  of  his  body-guard, 
made  a  last  and  vigorous  effort  to  save  it.  But 
nothing  could  stop  the  furious  onset  of  the  soldiers, 
sharpened,  as  it  was,  by  their  hatred  of  the  Jews, 
and  by  the  hopes  of  plunder,  which  they  expected 
would  be  gratified  by  the  far-famed  treasures 
of  the  inner  Temple  ;  which  all  they  saw  around 
them  tended  to  confirm.  At  length,  when  after 
the  slaughter  of  all  whom  the  soldiers  encountered 
on  the  Temple  platform,  without  respect  of  person, 
age,  or  office,  all  the  Jews  that  could  escape  having 
fled  into  the  city,  and   while  the  sanctuary  and  all 


THE  DESTRUCTION  OF  JERUSALEM       47 

around  them  was  in  flames,  the  Romans  brought 
their  eagles  within  the  walls  ;  and  having  set  them 
up  at  the  eastern  gate,  they  there  offered  up 
to  them  their  sacrifices,  and  there  saluted  Titus 
as  Imperator,  with  acclamations  of  great  joy.^ 
Thus  the  '  abomination  of  desolation,'  the  symbol 
of  the  highest  power  in  heathendom,  was  set  up 
in  God's  Most  Holy  Place  ;  in  what  was  deemed 
the  Holiest  in  Israel. 

We  need  not  pursue  this  saddest  of  all  histories 
through  the  burning  of  the  city  and  the  slaughter 
of  its  inhabitants,  whilst  the  shouts  and  shrieks  of 
the  slayers  and  of  the  slain  were  echoed  from  the 
mountains  round  Jerusalem,  till  their  last  refuge, 
the  Upper  Town,  was  taken,  and  the  Romans  be- 
came masters  of  the  whole  city.'- 

So  astonished  was  Titus,  on  entering  within 
its  walls,  at  the  height,  and  breadth,  and  solidity  of 
its  defences,  that  it  drew  from  him  a  striking  tes- 
timony to  our  Lord's  prediction  of  the  days  of 
vengeance,  which  He  had  declared  would  overtake 
that  guilty  generation.  '  God,'  said  Titus,  *  must 
certainly  have  fought  upon  our  side :  it  was  God 
that  cast  down  the  Jews  from  these  bulwarks  ;  for 
as  for  human  hands  and  engines,  what  could  they 
avail  against  these  towers  1 '  ^ 

1  Bell.  Jud.  VI.  iv. — v.     ^  Ibid.  VI.  v. — viii.     ^  Ibid.  vi.  ix.  I. 


48  THE  ARCH  OF   TITUS 

And  now,  when,  according  to  the  words  of  the 
historian,  there  were  none  to  be  seen  to  plunder  or 
to  slay,  Titus  ordered  the  city  and  the  Temple  to 
be  razed  to  their  foundations  ;  leaving  only  the 
three  Royal  Towers,  and  the  Wall  with  its  barracks, 
which  enclosed  the  town  on  the  west :  the  latter, 
for  the  reception  of  the  garrison  that  was  to  be  left 
there  ;  the  Towers,  to  indicate  to  future  times  what 
a  strong  and  splendid  city  Roman  valour  had  sub- 
dued. *  All  the  rest  of  the  wall,  that  encompassed 
the  city,  they  so  reduced,'  says  Josephus,  'and 
levelled  with  the  ground,  that  there  was  nothing 
to  lead  those  that  visited  the  spot  to  believe  that  it 
had  ever  been  inhabited.'  ^ 

So  precise  was  the  fulfilment  of  those  words, 
'  The  days  shall  come  upon  thee,  that  thine  ene- 
mies shall  cast  a  trench  about  thee,  and  compass 
thee  in  on  every  side,  and  shall  lay  thee  even  with 
the  ground,  and  thy  children  with  thee  ;  and 
they  shall  not  leave  in  thee  one  stone  upon  another  ; 
because  thou  knewest  not  the  time  of  thy  visita- 
tion.'^ 

Thus  too  was  fulfilled  another  word  of  judgment 

in  one  of  our  Lord's  last  parables,  which  obviously 

belongs  to  this  period,  that  of  the  Marriage  of  the 

King's  Son  :  who  having  provided  his  royal  ban- 

1  Bell.  Jud.  VII.  i.  I.  ^  Luke  xix.  43,  44. 


THE  DESTRUCTION  OF  JERUSALEM       49 

quet,  sent  forth  his  servants  to  invite  the  guests. 
The  thoughtless  multitude  made  light  of  it ;  their 
proud  and  angry  rulers  killed  the  messengers  ; 
whereupon  the  King  sent  forth  his  armies  and  de- 
stroyed those  murderers,  and  burnt  up  their  city. 
Our  Lord  says  their  city :  for  as  the  Temple  had 
ceased  to  be  God's  House,  and  was  now  reduced 
to  utter  desolation,  so  Jerusalem  had  lost  its 
honoured  name  and  guardian,  and  was  no  longer 
'  the  City  of  the  Great  King.'  ^ 

Nor  is  it  only  in  this  work  of  desolation  that  we 
see  this  fulfilment  of  our  Lord's  words,  notwith- 
standing the  counter-efforts  of  Titus  and  of  the  Jews; 
we  see  it  also  in  '  the  great  tribulation,'  which  our 
Lord  declared  would  fall  upon  that  generation  ; 
such  as  had  not  been  since  the  beginning  of  the 
world,  nor  ever  will  again  be  in  the  tide  of  time." 

Of  this  we  have  had  sad  proof  enough  in  the 
general  outlines  which  have  been  given  of  the 
siege.  Josephus  says,  in  nearly  our  Lord's  own 
words, — That  the  troubles  of  all  people,  from  the 
beginning  of  the  world,  appeared  to  him  to  sink 
in  comparison  with  those  of  the  Jews  in  this  war.^ 
And  in  another  place  he  remarks, — That,  as  no 
other  city  ever  suffered  such  miseries  as  Jerusalem, 

1  Matt.  V.  35;  xxii.  1—7.  ^  ^^tt.  xxiv.  21,  22. 

^  Bell.  Jud.  Procem.  %  4. 

D 


50  THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 

so  no  generation  had  ever  existed  more  fruitful  in 
wickedness  than  that.^  Yet  he  himself  failed,  with 
his  unhappy  countrymen,  to  recognize  the  head 
and  front  of  their  offence,  in  that  they  desired  a 
murderer  to  be  granted  unto  them,  and  killed  the 
Prince  of  Life.- 

The  people  that  survived  the  fall  of  the  city 
were  variously  disposed  of  at  the  will  of  their  con- 
queror. Those  that  resisted  were  put  at  once  to 
the  sword  ;  the  factious  brigands  were  also  exe- 
cuted ;  the  tall  and  handsome  youths  were  reserved 
for  the  triumph  ;  others  were  condemned  to  servile 
works  in  Egypt ;  many  were  sold,  and  many  were 
distributed  for  gladiatorial  victims  throughout  the 
provinces.  ^ 

According  to  the  generally  received  estimate, 
eleven  hundred  thousand  perished  during  the 
siege  ;  ninety-seven  thousand  were  made  prisoners, 
exclusive  of  nearly  four  hundred  thousand  who 
perished  in  the  war  in  various  places,  from  the 
time  when  our  Lord  delivered  His  prophecy,  till 
the  fifth  year  after  the  capture  of  the  city.^ 

And  yet,  as  a  Roman  historian  remarks,  though 
the  conquest  of  the  Jews  was  thus  important  and 

1  Bcll.Jud.  v.  X.  5.  2  Acts  iii.   14,  I5- 

3  BelLJud.  VI.  ix. 

-^  Ussher,  Aimales  Nov.  Test.  Works,  vol.  xi.  pp.  112,  113. 


THE   DESTRUCTION  OF  JERUSALEM       51 

complete,  and  though  the  conquerors  had  each  the 
rank  of  Imperator,  neither  of  them  took  the  title 
of  Judaiciis}  as,  from  the  greatness  of  their 
victories,  and  from  the  practice  of  eminent  men 
who  had  preceded  them,  they  might  have  been 
expected  to  do.  Was  it  that  Vespasian  would  not 
assume  a  title  which  he  may  have  felt  belonged 
especially  to  his  son  ?  Or  was  it  that  Titus  declined 
a  distinction  that  might  seem  to  dim  the  splendour 
of  his  father's  fame  ?  Dion  Cassius,  who  has  called 
attention  to  the  circumstance,  has  given  us  no  solu- 
tion of  it.  Was  it,  as  his  learned  editor  suggests,'^ 
on    the  ground   of  a   sarcastic    word   of  Cicero's, 

1  Km  eV  avTois  (says  Dion  Cassius,  i.  e,  in  consequence  of 
these  successes,  the  capture  of  the  city  and  the  imposition  of 
tribute),  to  [ikv  rov  avroKparopos  ovofxa  ajx^orepoi  eXa^ov,  to  de 
8r)  Tov  'lovSatKov  ovS'  €T€pos  eV^f  Ka'iTOL  TO.  T€  aXXa  avTo7s,  oaa 
enl  TrfKcKavTj]  v'lKrj  etKos  rjv,  KaX  d-^ldes  TponaioCJiupoL  iy^rjCJiio-dTjo-av. 
—Hist.  Rom.  vol.  ii.  LXVI.  7. 

2  Reimar  refers  to  an  expression  in  Cicero's  Epist.  ad 
Atticuj7i,  II.  ix.  '  Ut  sciat  hie  noster  Hierosolymarius,  tra- 
ductor  ad  plebem,  quam  bonam  meis  putissimis  orationibus 
gratiam  retulerit :  quarum  exspecta  divinam  TraXii/toSmi/.' 
Cicero  had  lauded  Pompey  in  the  senate  for  not  plundering 
the  sacred  treasury  when  the  Jews  abandoned  the  Temple  to 
his  soldiers,  not  choosing  to  fight  on  the  Sabbath  day.  But 
when  Cicero  wrote  this  letter  to  Atticus,  he  was  smarting 
under  Pompey's  treacherous  conduct,  in  advancing  the 
schemes  of  his  enemy  Clodius ;  and  he  threatens  '  this 
Jerusalemite  of  ours,'  as  he  calls  him,  with  a  recantation  of 
those  commendations  which  had  met  with  so  ungrateful  a 
return* 


52  THE  ARCH  OF   TITUS 

touching  Pompey's  capture  of  Jerusalem,  that  the 
Romans  did  not  care  to  take  a  title  from  a  people 
whom  they  held  in  such  contempt  as  the  Jews  ? 
True  it  is,  the,  Romans  did  despise  them  for  what 
they  deemed  their  unsocial  system  ;  and  Pompey's 
capture  of  the  city  may  have  been  an  easy  feat. 
But  Vespasian  and  Titus  had  no  easy  work  in  their 
subjugation  of  Judaea  and  its  metropolis.  Their 
five  years'  war,  and  their  five  months'  siege,  to- 
gether with  their  arduous  conquest  of  Galilee,  must 
have  taught  them  to  hold  the  Jewish  nation  in  any 
other  light  than  that  of  contempt :  and  the  great 
preparations  which  they  made  for  their  triumph 
indicated  anything  but  such  a  feeling.  Was  it 
then  that  Titus  shrank  from  the  title,  from  feeling, 
as  we  have  seen,  on  entering  the  city,  that  God 
had  broken  down  its  walls  and  bulwarks,  and  had 
delivered  it  as  a  prey  into  his  hands }  We  can 
hardly  be  justified  in  this  inference,  when  viewed 
in  connexion  with  his  subsequent  career.  Yet  so  it 
was,  that  neither  of  the  generals  took  any  title  from 
the  scene  of  his  victories,  nor  called  himself  the 
conqueror  of  Jerusalem.  Jerusalem  fell  indeed  by 
the  Hand  that  had  exalted  her,  and  had  made  her 
once  '  the  joy  of  the  whole  earth.'  She  fell,  a 
terrible  and  memorable  example  of  perverted 
privileges   and    of  a   broken    covenant.     She    fell 


THE   DESTRUCTION  OF  JERUSALEM       53 

before  the  armies  of  Rome ;  but  our  Lord,  in  the 
parable  just  cited,  calls  them  emphatically  His 
Father's  armies,  sent  forth  to  vindicate  His  injured 
Son.  Her  rulers  rejected  their  King,  their  Christ ; 
lest,  as  they  avowed,  the  Romans  should  come  and 
take  away  their  place  and  nation  ;  ^  and  this  very 
rejection  brought  upon  them  those  Romans,  who 
took  away  their  nation  and  their  place. 

1  John  xi,  48, 


CHAPTER    II 

THE   TRIUMPH   OF   TITUS 

Shortly  after  the  fall  of  the  city  Titus  went  to 

Caesarea    and    Berytus,    where    he   celebrated    his 

father's    and    his    brother's    birthdays   with    great 

magnificence  and  with  barbarous  shows ;  in  which 

several  thousand  Jewish  captives  were  put  to  death 

in  wanton  sport ;   '  butchered    to  make  a    Roman 

holiday.'      Thence,    after    visiting     Antioch    and 

Zeugma,    Titus  proceeded    to   Alexandria,  having 

taken,  on  his  way,  a  pit3nng  glance  at  the  striking 

contrast  then  presented  to  all  its  former  greatness 

and  splendour,  in  the  wretched  and  solitary  ruins 

of  Jerusalem.^      There  he  left  the  tenth  legion  in 

charge  of  the  relics  of  the  people  and  of  the  city  : 

the  twelfth  legion  -   he   banished  to   Armenia,    in 

remembrance  of  their  ignominious  retreat  and  the 

loss  of  their  eagle  at  Bethhoron.     From  Egypt  he 

1  Be//.  Jiid.  VII.  V. 

-  Ibid.  VII.  i.  3.     Afterwards  the  noted  Legio  Fulminatrix. 


THE    TRIUMPH  OF   TITUS  55 

sent  Simon  Bargioras,  and  John  of  Gischala,  with 
seven  hundred  Jews,  selected  for  their  stature  and 
personal  appearance,  together  with  an  enormous 
amount  of  spoils,  to  grace  his  approaching  triumph 
at  Rome.i 

Some  of  these  spoils,  Josephus  tells  us,  were 
brought  to  Titus  by  one  of  the  priests,  under  a 
solemn  promise  of  protection,  before  the  Upper 
City  had  fallen  ;  others  were  surrendered  by  the 
Treasurer  of  the  Temple ;  and  he  mentions  in 
particular,  golden  candlesticks  and  tables,  bowls 
and  cups,  and  other  articles  which  had  been  used 
in  the  sacred  service.^  In  a  subsequent  account 
of  what  he  saw  in  the  triumph,  though  he  does  not 
profess  to  describe  all  the  spoils,  he  says  that  those 
that  were  taken  from  the  Temple  made  the 
greatest  figure  on  that  occasion ;  '^  those  in  fact 
which  appeared  most  worthy  of  being  recorded 
amongst  the  sculptures  on  the  Arch;  which  are 
indeed  truthful  records  of  the  triumph,  though 
there  is  some  artistic  fiction  mixed  up  with  them. 

The  Arch  then  may  be  regarded  as  an  exponent 
of  the  Triumph ;  which  took  place  on  the  return 
of  Titus  to  Italy,  probably  in  the  year  following 
the  fall  of  Jerusalem;*  but  when  exactly  we  cannot 

1  BelLJiid.  VII.  V.  2,  3. 

^  Ibid.  VII.  V.  5.  ^  A.D.  71. 


56  THE  ARCH  OF   TITUS 

say,  as  the  Triumphal  Annals  terminate  many 
years    earlier. 

In  consequence  of  the  different  victories  of  the 
two  conquerors  the  Senate  decreed  a  separate 
triumph  to  each.  They,  however,  determined  that 
their  conquests  should  be  celebrated  by  only  one 
common  triumph. ^  The  Senate  voted  also  'two 
trophied  arches ' ;  so  at  least  we  are  told  by  Dion 
Cassius ;  -  but  there  does  not  seem  to  have  been 
more  than  one  erected,  and  that  not  till  after  the 
death  of  Vespasian.  But  their  Triumph  appears 
to  have  been  conducted  on  a  scale  of  more  than 
ordinary  magnificence.  Orosius  says  it  was  the 
three  hundred  and  twentieth  of  those  pageants,  for 
which  the  Romans  were  so  much  celebrated  ;  and 
that  it  was  distinguished  by  the  splendour  of  its 
spectacle  far  beyond  all  that  had  preceded  it.^ 
Josephus,  who  was  present,  is  exuberant  in  its 
praise ;  and  seems  to  have  been  so  lost  in 
admiration  of  its  novelties  as  to  have  forgotten, 
not  only  his  country's  degradation,  but  the  wrongs 
and  sorrows  also  of  his  captive  countrymen  ;  who 
so  largely  contributed  to  swell  its  pomp  and  pride. 

All  the  troops  which  were  then  in  Rome  as- 
sembled in  the  morning  of  the  day  appointed,  near 

1  Bell.  Jud.  VII.  V.  3.  -  D.  Cassius,  Hist.  LXVI.  7. 

•'  Orosius,  Hist.  vii.  ix. 


THE    TRIUMPH  OF   TITUS  57 

the  temple  of  Isis,  in  the  Campus  Martius,  where 
they  were  met  by  Vespasian  and  Titus,  crowned 
with  laurel  and  in  ancestral  purple.^  Thence  they 
proceeded  to  the  Octavian  Walks,  or  Porticus, 
where  the  Senate,  magistrates,  and  many  of  the 
knights  were  waiting  to  receive  them.^  There,  in 
front  of  the  colonnades,  and  seated  in  their  ivory 
chairs  of  state,  they  received  and  returned  the 
congratulations  of  the  people  ;  and  distributed  to 
the  soldiers  who  had  been  with  them  in  the  war 
the  customary  crowns  and  branches  of  laurel, 
together  with  those  headless  spears  or  staves,"  which 
were  special  marks  of  military  distinction,  and 
which  appear,  as  we  shall  see,  in  the  hands  of  the 
soldiers  who  are  carrying  the  spoils  of  the  Temple. 
Having  offered  their  usual  form  of  prayer,— That 
the  gods,  by  whom  Rome  had  been  founded  and 

1  Ilopcf)vpas  de  eo-driras  narpLovs  dp.7rexop.cvo1. — Bell.  Jtld. 
VII.  V.  4.  Not  paternal  or  ancestral,  as  belonging  to  Ves- 
pasian's family;  for  ancestry  he  had  none,  and  would  have 
been  the  last  to  claim  it  ;  but,  according  to  the  old  estab- 
lished rites,  which,  on  these  occasions,  required  the  Imperator 
to  be  in  purple,  and  all  the  rest  in  white. 

2  Bell.  Jud.  VII.  V.  4. 

3  ^6paTa  d<TL8r]pa,  as  Zonaras  calls  them,  in  his  account  of 
the  triumph  of  Camillus,  Annales,  vil.  xxi.  The  Romans 
called  them  Hast^  purae,  and  they  seem  to  have  been  usual 
appendages  of  a  triumph.  '  Sed  tua  sic,  domitis  Parth^ 
telluris  alumnis,  Pura  triumphantes  hasta  sequatur  equos.'— 
Propertius,  TV.  iii.  67. 


58  THE  ARCH  OF   TITUS 

advanced,  would  still  continue  their  favour  and  pro- 
tection,— they  went  with  their  attendants  to  the 
Triumphal  Gate  through  which  they  had  to  pass 
into  the  city.  There,  having  put  on  their  appro- 
priate robes,  and  having  offered  frankincense  to 
the  gods  whose  statues  stood  there,  they  mounted 
their  chariots,  and  ordered  the  procession  to  move 
on  ;  driving  through  the  tiers  of  crowded  seats 
which  flanked  their  line  of  progress  to  the  Capitol. 

The  route  of  the  procession  is  not  given  in 
Josephus,  nor  can  we  indeed  determine  with  cer- 
tainty the  site  of  the  gate^  from  which  it  started  ; 
but  he  has  mentioned  the  chief  component  parts  of 
the  pomp  ;  and  we  can  readily  supply  such  as  are 
wanting. 

The  Senate  and  other  chief  persons  took  the 
lead.  They  were  followed  by  the  greater  portion 
of  the  spoils,  with  persons  carrying  title-boards 
or  placards ;  from  which  the  spectators  might 
ascertain  the  history  of  all  the  objects  that  passed 
before  them.^     Josephus  does  not  enter  much  into 

^  Donati  places  this  gate  in  the  city  wall,  on  the  south  of 
the  Campus  Martius  ;  but  he  candidly  says,  '  Equidem  potius 
ubi  non  fuerit,  quam  ubi  ponenda  sit,  possum  ostendere.'— 
De  Urbe  Roma^  i.  xxii. 

2  Ovid,  from  remembrance  of  similar  pageants  (for  he  was 
at  Pontus  when  he  wrote  the  verses),  speaks  of  these  tituli 
or  placards,  in  a  triumph  of  Tiberius.     '  Ergo  omnis  poterit 


THE    TRIUMPH  OF  TITUS  59 

these  details  :  he  says  it  was  impossible  to  recount 
them  all ;  but  that  such  was  the  number  and  such 
the  magnificence  of  the  spoils,  of  things  most  rich 
and  rare  in  nature  and  in  art,  that  it  seemed  as  if 
the  products  of  different  nations  had  been  brought 
there  together,  on  that  day,  and  had  passed  before 
him  like  a  flowing  river.i  There  was  silver,  gold, 
and  ivory  in  all  manner  of  forms  ;  gems,  in  crowns 
and  in  other  fashions ;  tapestries  of  the  rarest 
Babylonian  embroidery.  There  were  also  in  the 
pomp,  in  appropriate  trappings,  foreign  animals  of 
various  kinds  ;  and  other  productions  of  the  con- 
quered country  which  would  be  likely  to  interest 
the  citizens  of  Rome.^  But  the  objects  which, 
according  to  Josephus,  excited  the  greatest  admir- 
ation in  the  whole  procession,  were  the  large  and 
lofty  platforms  on  which  were  exhibited  various 
sections  of  the  late  campaign  ;  consisting  of  models 


populus  spectare  triumphos,  Ciimque  diicum  titulis  oppida 
capta  leget  :  Vinclaque  captiva  reges  cervice  gerentes,  Ante 
coronatos  ire  videbit  equos.' — Trist.  IV.  ii.  19 — 22. 

1  BelLJud.  VII.  V. 

2  According  to  a  curious  list  which  Hoffman  has  given  of 
these  triumphal  novelties  (s.  v.  Triumphus),  it  appears  that 
the  balsam-tree  of  Jericho  was  the  most  remarkable  exotic 
in  Vespasian's  triumph.  Pliny  mentions  it  :  '  Omnibus 
odoribus  prsefertur  Balsamum,  uni  terrarum  Judaea  conces- 
sum.  Ostendere  arbusculam  hanc  imperatores  Vespasiani.' 
—Hist.  Nat.  XII.  liv. 


6o  THE  ARCH  OF   TITUS 

of  cities,  temples,  fortresses,  assaulted,  captured,  in 
ruins  or  in  flames  ;  with  dramatic  representations 
of  the  hostile  armies  in  all  the  varying  forms  and 
circumstance  of  war.^  Then  there  followed  many 
captured  ships,  that  had  probably  been  taken  at 
Tarichaea,  and  after  the  conflicts  and  the  storm  at 
Joppa ;  which  are  mentioned  amongst  the  earlier 
events  of  the  history.  After  these  things  came 
the  priests  with  the  bulls  for  sacrifice,^  adorned 
with  fillets,  garlands,  and  dorsal  cloths  ;  with  corn 
and  wine,  and  meal,  and  frankincense.  Then  came 
the  seven  hundred  Hebrew  youths,  with  Simon 
Bargioras  and  John  of  Gischala ;  all  splendidly 
attired,  and  all  in   chains :  and  after  them,  as  in 

1  These  IlT^y/xara,  or  platforms,  were  of  various  kinds  and 
uses  ;  for  the  theatre,  for  the  circus,  and  for  the  triumph. 
Ovid,  in  the  poem  just  cited,  speaks  of  them  as  common 
parts  of  the  pageant.  'Hie  lacus,  hi  montes,  hcec  tot  cas- 
tella,  tot  amnes,  Plena  feras  casdis,  plena  cruoris  erant.' — 
Tj'ist.  IV,  ii.  37,  and  again,  Ex  Ponfo,  iv.  ii.  39.  It  seems, 
from  the  language  of  Josephus,  that  these  platforms  con- 
sisted not  of  mere  pictures,  but  of  models  of  battle-fields  in 
Jerusalem  and  in  other  places  ;  but  whether  these  repre- 
sentations were  effected  by  such  automatic  machinery  as 
Seneca  describes  in  his  account  of  the  Pegmata,  is  doubtful ; 
Lipsius  thinks  they  were  not.  De  AviphitJieatro^  XXII. 
Grsevius,  tom.  IX. 

2  '  Hinc  albi,  Clitumne,  greges,  et  maxuma  taurus,  Victima, 
saepe  tuo  perfusi  flumine  sacro,  Romanos  ad  templa  Deum 
duxere  triumphos.' — Gcorg.  II.  146.  Virgil  says  Duxerej 
for  the  victims  preceded  the  Imperator's  car;  and  they 
appear  upon  the  frieze,  though  not  mentioned  by  Josephus. 


THE    TRIUMPH  OF   TITUS  6i 

the  most  distinguished  place,  the  spoils  that  had 
been  taken  from  the  Temple  of  Jerusalem  ;  the 
golden  Table,  the  golden  Candlestick,  and  last  of 
all,  the  Book  of  the  Law.^  After  these  things 
there  followed  a  numerous  company  with  gold  and 
ivory  images  of  Victory.  Then  came  the  Emperor 
Vespasian  in  his  chariot,  followed  by  Titus  in 
another  chariot,"  and  by  his  younger  son,  Domi- 
tian,  who  was  consul,  on  horseback.  After  them, 
as  on  all  such  occasions,  came  the  soldiers  that 
had  been  engaged  in  the  war,  crowned  with  laurel, 
and  shouting  songs  of  victory,  together  with  such 
effusions  of  praise,  abuse,  and  raillery,  as  they 
chose  to  bestow  upon  their  military  leaders.  Thus 
they  went  along  the  Via  Sacra ;  the  conquerors  to 
the  Capitol,  there  to  present  their  votive  crowns 
upon  the  knees  of  Jupiter  ;  the  captives  to  the 
Forum,  and  thence  to  prison,  where  on  most  occa- 
sions the  captured  kings  and  leaders  were  put  to 
death.  Nor  do  we  find  that  the  termination  of 
this  Triumph  was  any  exception  to  this  atrocious 
practice,  though  it  occurred  in  what  was  deemed 
a  civilized  age,  and  under  the  most  humane  of 
emperors. 

1  Bell.Jicd.  VII.  V.  5. 

2  Ibid.  VII.  V.  Orosius,  Hist.  vii.  ix.,  says  that  the  father 
and  the  son  were  in  the  same  chariot  ;  but  Josephus  was  an 
eye-witness  of  the  Triumph. 


62  THE  ARCH  OF   TITUS 

When  arrived  at  the  Capitol  the  procession 
halted  ;  for  it  had  been  the  custom,  says  Josephus, 
there  to  wait  till  some  one  announced  the  death  of 
the  general  of  the  enemy.  This  was  Simon,  son  of 
Gioras.  Bound  by  a  halter,  and  scourged  by  those 
that  led  him,  he  was  dragged  to  the  place  of 
execution  ;  ^  and  as  soon  as  it  was  announced  that 
'  there  was  an  end  of  him,'  the  multitude  acknow- 
ledged it  with  a  joyful  shout.  They  then  proceeded 
to  sacrifice  the  victims  ;  and  having  offered  their 
usual  form  of  thanks  to  the  gods,  they  departed 
to  the  banquets  that  had  been  prepared  for  them.^ 

Such  was  the  revolting  termination  of  the 
Triumph.  Yet  such  was  Rome  in  her  highest  glory ; 
such  too  in  her  hour  of  greatest  joy  ;  so  much 
she  still  retained  of  her  foster-mother's  nature,  and 
carried  it  with  her  to  the  brink  of  her  grave. 

For  Simon  there  was  probably  but  little  sym- 
pathy by  those  that  knew  him^  as  well  as  those 
that   did   not :  for,   though  a    man    of  remarkable 

^  Ets  Tov  enl  Trjs  dyopas  icrvpero  tottov,  k.t.X.  I^l'//.  Jlld^ 
VII.  V.  6,  This  agrees  with  the  site  of  the  Mamertine 
prison  :  '  Career  media  urbe  imminens  Foro.'— Livii,  Hist.  I. 
xxiii. :  and  with  Cicero's  account  of  the  place  and  the  prac^ 
tice.  '  Cum  de  Foro  in  Capitolium  flectere  incipiunt,  illos 
(/.  c.  duces  hostium)  duci  in  carcerem  :  idemque  dies  et 
victoribus  imperii,  et  victis  vitas  finem  facit.' — In  Verrcin^ 
V.  30. 

-  Bell.  J  lid.  VII.  V. 


THE    TRIUMPH  OF   TITUS  63 

courage  and  ability,  he  seems  to  have  been  gener- 
ally feared  and  hated.  But,  on  most  of  these 
triumphal  occasions,  we  cannot  but  suppose  that 
many  must  have  felt  with  one  of  our  poets,  who, 
on  visiting  this  entrance  to  the  Capitol,  exclaims : 

'  And  what  are  they, 
Who  at  the  foot  withdraw,  a  mournful  train, 

In  fetters  ? They  are  the  fallen  ; 

Those  who  were  spared  to  grace  the  chariot  wheels  ; 

And  there  they  parted,  where  the  road  divides, 

The  victor  and  the  vanquished — there  withdrew  ; 

He  to  the  festal  board,  and  they  to  die. 

Well  might  the  great,  the  mighty  of  the  world. 

They  who  were  wont  to  fare  deliciously. 

And  war  but  for  a  kingdom,  more  or  less. 

Shrink  back,  nor  from  their  thrones  endure  to  look, 

To  think  that  way  !     Well  might  they  in  their  state 

Humble  themselves,  and  kneel  and  supplicate 

To  be  delivered  from  a  dream  like  this.'  ^ 

And  there,  upon  the  summit  of  the  Sacred  Way, 
that  consecrated  path, — over  whose  broad  flints 

'  Such  crowds  have  rolled,  so  many  storms  of  war, 
So  many  pomps,  so  many  wondering  realms,'-— 

this  Arch  of  Titus  was  built. 

1  Italy,  p.   143.  ^  Dyer,  Ruins  of  Rome,  p.  32. 


CHAPTER    III 

THE   ARCH   OF   TITUS 

As  to  the  precise  date  of  the  erection  of  the 
Arch  of  Titus  we  have  no  information.  But  if  not 
the  first  it  was  one  of  the  earHest  of  those  twenty- 
one  arches  with  which  Rome  was  once  adorned. 
And  if  not  the  first,  it  is  one  of  the  earhest 
specimens  of  that  elaborate  order  in  which  they 
were  executed  :  though  that  order  is  said  to  have 
been  found  upon  the  Arch  of  Drusus,  and  even 
upon  a  portico  in  Caria.^  Not  indeed  that  tri- 
umphal arches,  of  some  kind  or  other,  were  of  so 
late  a  date  as  this ;  for  it  was  the  practice  of  the 
Romans  in  very  early  times,  to  erect  arches  to 
commemorate  their  victories ;  but  at  first  they 
were  of  very  rude  construction,  and  of  no  better 
material  than  stone  or  brick ;  as  the  arch  that 
was  built  in  honour  of  Camillus,  after  the  conquest 
of  Veii.'-^ 

^  Burton,  Antiquities  of  Ronu\  vol.  i.  p.  230. 
-  Pitiscus,  Lex.  Antiq.  Rom.  s.  v.  Arcus. 


THE   ARCH  OF   TITUS  65 

This  Arch  of  Titus  is  said  to  have  had  originally 
two  inscriptions  ;  one  on  each  side  of  the  Attic 
story  with  which  it  is  surmounted  even  now.  One 
of  these  inscriptions  is  still  legible,  as  it  appears 
upon  the  reduced  copy  of  the  photograph  which 
was  executed  in  Rome  a  few  years  since.  The 
other  inscription  had  disappeared  from  its  place 
as  long  since  as  the  time  of  Donati,  that  is,  more 
than  two  hundred  years  ago.  But  it  has  been 
preserved  by  Gruter ;  who  professes,  however,  his 
ignorance  of  its  origin,  and  says  that  Scaliger  con- 
sidered it  to  be  a  forgery  of  Onuphrius.^ 

On  the  storey  fronting  the  Colosseum,  that  is, 
the  side  which  is  given  in  this  print,  we  have 
the  following  simple  inscription  : 

SENATVS 

POPVLVSQVE    ROMANVS 

DIVO    TITO    DIVI    VESPASIANI    F. 

VESPASIANO    AVGVSTO. 

From  this  inscription  it  appears,  not  only  that  the 
arch  was  erected  to  Titus  by  the  Senate  and  the 
people,  but  that  it  was  not  erected  till  after  he 
became  emperor,  as  is  indicated  by  the  title 
Augustus,  Nor  was  it  erected  till  after  his  death. 
At  all  events,  if  begun  before,  it  must  have  been 

^  Gruter,  Corpus  luscript.  vol.  i .  p.  ccxliv,  b. 

E 


66  THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 

finished  after  his  decease;  as  he  is  here  called 
DivtLS,  the  Deified.  For  though  the  Roman  poets 
often  speak  of  their  emperors  as  gods  upon  earth, 
the  DivtLS,  here  solemnly  assigned  by  the  Senate, 
and  placed  upon  the  tablet,  cannot  be  mistaken. 

And  there  is  a  curious  confirmation  of  this  in 
Tacitus.  He  states  that  Anicius,  when  consul 
elect,  instead  of  voting  thanks  and  offerings  to  the 
gods,  for  Nero's  escape  from  assassination,  pro- 
posed that  a  temple,  at  the  public  charge,  should 
be  built,  as  soon  as  possible,  to  the  Divine  Nero. 
'  A  motion,'  says  Tacitus,  '  by  which  he  meant  to 
intimate  that  Nero  soared  above  the  pinnacle  of 
mortality,  and  deserved  the  worship  given  to  the 
gods,  but  which  was  slily  interpreted  by  some 
persons  as  ominous  of  Nero's  approaching  death  : 
for  divine  worship  is  not  paid  to  a  prince  till  he 
has  ceased  to  sojourn  upon  earth.'  ^ 

That  the  Arch  is  indeed  a  posthumous  tribute  is 

attested   also   by   the   circumstance,    that   on  the 

ceiling  of  the  vault  there  is  the  symbol  of  Titus' 

apotheosis,  or  his  enrolment  among  the  gods. 

1  'Reperio  in  commentariis  Senatus,  Cerealem  Anicium, 
Consulem  designatum,  pro  sententia  dixisse,  Ut  templum  D. 
Neroni  quam  maturrime  publica  pecunia  poneretur.  Quod 
quidem  ille  decernebat,  tamquam  mortale  fastigium  egresso 
et  venerationem  hominum  merito,  quorumdam  dolo  ad  omnia 
sui  exitus  vertebatur.  Nam  Deum  honor  Principi  non  ante 
habetur,  quam  agere  inter  homines  desierit.' — Annal.  XV.  74. 


THE   ARCH   OF   TITUS  67 

Titus  is  represented  as  sitting  astride  upon  an 
eagle  ;  and  there  are  also,  at  the  corners  of  the 
tablet,  eagles  grasping  in  their  claws  the  thunder- 
bolt ;  the  acknowledged  symbol  of  consecration. 
For  it  was  the  Roman  custom,  at  the  obsequies  of 
an  emperor,  to  have  an  eagle  concealed  at  the  top 
of  the  pile,  and,  as  soon  as  the  funeral  fire  was 
kindled,  to  let  the  eagle  fly ;  who,  as  he  mounted 
up  into  the  sky,  was  thought  by  the  people  to 
carry  the  emperor's  spirit  along  with  him  ;  and 
thenceforth,  as  Herodian  remarks,  he  was  wor- 
shipped in  common  with  the  other  gods.^ 

The  other  inscription,  before  referred  to,  which 

is  said  to  have  been  discovered  in  the  Circus,^  is 

much   longer,   and    in  a  very   different   style.     It 

professes  that  the  Arch  was  erected  to  Titus  ;  and 

after  recounting  his  high  offices  and  the  number  of 

his  victories,  it  adds,  that,  acting  under  his  father's 

counsels  and  auspices,  he  had  subdued  the  Jews, 

and  destroyed   Jerusalem  ;    which   had  either  not 

^  So  Herodian  concludes  his  account  of  the  obsequies  of 
Septimius  Severus. — Hist.  iv.  ii.  2.  Dryden  rather  oddly 
refers  to  this  practice  at  the  commencement  of  his  Stanzas 
on  the  Death  of  Croniiucll — 

'  And  now  'tis  time  ;  for  their  officious  haste, 
Who  would  before  have  borne  him  to  the  sky, 
Like  eager  Romans,  ere  all  rites  were  past, 
Did  let  too  soon  the  sacred  eagle  fly.' 
^  Marlianus,  Urbis  Roincc  Topog.  III.  viii.    Gnevius,  torn.  III. 


68  THE  ARCH  OF   TITUS 

been  attempted  by  any  previous  generals,  kings,  or 
people,  or  had  been  attempted  in  vain. 

IMP.     TITO     CAESARI     DIVI 

VESPASIANI     F.     VESPASIANO 

AVG.     PONTIFICI     MAXIMO 

TRIE.     POT.     X. 
IMP.     XVII.     COS.     VIII.     P.P. 

PRINCIPI     SVO     S.P.Q.R. 

QVOD     PRAECEPTIS     PATRIS 

CONSILIISQVE     ET     AVSPICIIS 

GENTEM     IVDAEORVM     DOMVIT 

ET     VRBEM     HIEROSOLYMAM 

OMNIBVS     ANTE     SE     DVCIBVS 

REGIBVS     GENTIBVSQVE 

AVT     FRVSTRA     PETITAM 

AVT     OMNINO     INTENTATAM 

DELEVIT. 

Whether  this  inscription  was  ever  attached  to 
either  side  of  the  Arch  is  uncertain  :  nor  is  it 
a  matter  of  much  importance.  It  gives  no  in- 
formation as  to  Titus,  as  acting  under  his  father's 
counsels,  which  we  have  not  learnt  more  fully  from 
Josephus  :  and  what  it  adds,  with  regard  to  his 
assault  upon  Jerusalem,  is  matter  of  such  am- 
bitious blundering  that  it  is  surprising  how  any 
one  could  have  ventured  on  a  statement,  at  variance 
not  only  with  Jewish  history,  but  even  with  recent 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 


69 


Roman  affairs.  That  the  Romans  may  have  been 
ignorant  of  the  assaults  that  had  been  made  upon 
Judaea  and  Jerusalem  by  neighbouring  nations 
may  well  be  supposed,  when  we  sec  the  strange 
stories  which  Tacitus  has  retailed  of  the  origin  of 
the  Jews  and   of  their   early   history.^     But   how 


CONSECRATIO    SIVE    APOTHEOSIS    TIT  I. 
REDUCED   FROM   BARTOLl'S   ADMIRANDA. 


could  they  be  ignorant  of  Pompey's  conquest,  who 
had  not  only  taken  Jerusalem,  but  had  also  made 
her  tributary  to  Rome,  not  a  century  and  a  half 
before    the    time    of  Titus?-     Such  fictions,  says 

^  Tacitus,  Hisf.  v,  2 — 5. 

2  Josephus,  A?itiq.  xiv.  iv.     Tacitus,  Hist.  v.  ix. 


70  THE  ARCH   OF   TITUS 

Orelli,  they  are  apt  to  form,  who  aim  at  something 
grand  or  extraordinary.^ 

Nor  is  this  the  only  instance  in  which  the  name 
of  Titus  seems  to  have  been  thus  unduly  magnified. 
Pope  alludes  to  a  learned  strife  which  had  been 
kindled  in  behalf  of  the  two  Vespasians,  by  some 
old  inscription,  that  had  suffered  in  common  with 
the  arches  and  temples  of  ancient  Rome. 

'  Some  felt  the  silent  stroke  of  mouldering  age. 
Some  hostile  fury,  some  religious  rage  ; 
Barbarian  blindness,  Christian  zeal  conspire, 
And  Papal  piety,  and  Gothic  fire. 
Perhaps,  by  its  own  ruins  saved  from  flame. 
Some  buried  marble  half  preserves  a  name  ; 
That  name  the  learned  with  fierce  disputes  pursue, 
And  give  to  Titus  old  Vespasian's  due.' - 

The  names,  however,  in  this  instance  are  suffi- 
ciently discriminated  to  prevent  the  risk  of  any 
such  disastrous  misunderstanding :  nor  shall  we 
take  anything  from  the  old  Vespasian  by  rejecting 
this  inscription  as  spurious.  That  Titus  acted 
under  his  father's  auspices,  and  received  from  him 
the  conduct  of  the  war,   we  have  heard  already 


1  Insn-ipt.  Latin,  vol.  i.  p.  184  :  and  yet  this  inscription  is 
given  in  a  Fascicithis  Rojnanariim  Insc?'iptionn7u,  printed  at 
Padua  1774,  'In  usum  juventutis,'  and  dedicated  'Tironibus 
Rei  Lapidarias  studiosis.' 

2  Vet'ses  occasioned  by  Mr.  Addison^ s  Treatise  of  Medals  ; 
prefixed  to  the  Dialogues. 


THE  ARCH  OF    TITUS  71 

from  other  sources :  it  is  only  from  Titus  we  must 
pluck  the  laurel,  here  assigned  him  by  some  foolish 
lapidary,  of  having  been  the  first  that  conquered 
the  Jewish  metropolis. 

We  may  now  turn  to  other  details  of  the  Arch, 
its  style,  and  its  historical  reminiscences. 

It  is  built  of  large  blocks  of  Parian  marble  ;  and 
as  a  work  of  art  it  has  been  much  admired. 
Whether  or  not  it  be  the  first  example  of  that 
combination  called  the  Roman,  or  the  Composite, 
or,  as  some  have  called  it,  the  Triumphal  order, 
from  its  being  used  especially  in  these  arches,  it  is 
admitted  to  be  a  graceful  exhibition  of  it:  and 
has  been  treated  as  a  model  in  its  kind ;  the 
most  celebrated  revivers  of  Roman  architecture 
having  taken  the  proportions  of  the  order  from 
this  Arch.i 

The  print  to  which  we  have  already  referred 
shows  the  side  towards  the  Colosseum,  and  cor- 
rectly represents  its  present  state.  The  other  side, 
or  western,  towards  the  Forum,  retains  but  little 
of  its  original  form,  having  suffered  much  from 
various  causes  ;  especially  when  the  Arch  was  used 
as  a  fortress,  in  the  civil  war,  in  the  twelfth  century. 
And  so  largely  had  the  soil  accumulated  round  it, 

1  Desgodetz,  Edifices  Antiques,  vol.  11.  xvii.  Lumisden, 
Remarks  on  Antiquities  of  Rome ^  p.  341. 


72 


THE  ARCH  OF   TITUS 


in  the  course  of  that  and  the  two  next  centuries, 
that  the  two  chief  tablets  were  not  visible,  till 
Sixtus  the  Fourth  made  a  way  beneath  the  vault 
down  to  the  level  of  the  ancient  pavement ;  which 
now  forms  the  pathway  through  it.^ 


KEYSTONE    OF    THE    EASTERN    SIDE    OF    THE    ARCH. 
REDUCED  FROM  DESGODETZ'    EDIFICES   ANTIQUES. 

The  Columns  gradually  diminish  from  the  pedes- 
tals, and  are  surmounted  by  the  usual  acanthus- 
capital,  subdivided ,  into  parsley-leaves  ;  and  they 
were  doubtless  all  originally  alike,  as  they  are  given 
by  Donati  and  Montfaucon ;  though  the  outer 
columns  have  been  restored  in  a  m^anner  most 
unworthy  of  their  old  companions.  The  Volutes, 
and,  in  .short,  all  parts  of  the  capitals,  as  well  as 

1  Taylor  and  Cresy,  Architectural  Antiquities^  p.  4.  Burton, 
Description  of  Rome^  vol.  i.  p.  237. 


THE  ARCH  OF   TITUS  73 

the  details  of  the  entablature,  are  in  a  style  of 
profuse  ornament,  and  are  given  with  fine  effect 
by  Desgodetz.  The  Spandrells  are  filled  by  two 
figures  of  Fame ;  one  holding  in  her  hand  a 
standard,  the  other  apparently  a  laurel  crown. 
The  Brackets  underneath  the  cornice  are  formed 
of  dolphins  resting  upon  shells,  and  are  supposed 
to  symbolize  the  shore  of  Gennesareth.^  On  the 
Keystone,  which  is  now  much  decayed,  but  which 
was  once  considered  the  finest  in  Rome,  there  are 
the  relics  of  a  helmeted  female  figure,  probably 
designed  for  Rome  herself.  She  is  standing  in 
front  of  some  military  weapons  :  her  left  hand 
rests  upon  a  shield  ;  with  the  right  she  seems  to 
be  in  the  act  of  welcoming  her  victorious  sons  on 
their  way  to  the  Capitol.^ 

We  may  now  notice  those  more  important  parts, 
to  which  the  whole  structure  may  be  considered 
as  subservient.  Under  the  vault,  and  on  each  side 
of  its  chamber,  are  the  two  noted  bas-reliefs  :  the 
one  on  the  north  side  representing  the  emperor, 
passing  through  the  city  in  his  chariot  to  the 
Capitol ;  the  other,  the  spoils  which  were  carried 
before  him  :  and  on  the  Frieze,  that  runs  across 
the  whole  upper  structure,  or  did,  at  least,  when 

^  Taylor  and  Cresy,  Architectural  Antiquities^  vol.  i.,  plates 
IV.— viiL  pp.  9—12.  2  See  p.  72. 


74  THE  ARCH  OF   TITUS 

it  was  entire,  we  have  a  representation  of  another 
part  of  the  pomp,  consisting  of  such  living  objects 
as  were  deemed  legitimate  subjects  for  the  Frieze, 
and  from  which,  indeed,  it  took  its  earlier  name. 

Here  we  have,  first,  two  Roman  soldiers,  one 
with  a  shield,  the  next  with  a  title-board  or 
placard ;  then  a  sacrificer  in  a  lictor's  apron, 
leading  two  bulls  about  to  be  offered,  in  their 
ornamented  cloths  and  fillets  ;  followed  by  an 
attendant  with  a  pitcher  of  wine  and  a  basket  of 
perfumes  for  the  sacrifices.  Then  we  have  another 
priest,  leading  another  decorated  bull ;  soldiers 
in  tunics,  crowned  with  laurel,  and  bearing  the 
Roman  oblong  shield ;  a  person  in  a  toga  and 
another  with  a  placard.  Then  comes  another 
sacrificer  with  a  bull,  and  an  attendant  with  an 
incense-basket,  as  before ;  followed  by  senators, 
and  by  another  sacrificer  and  a  bull.  Then  we  have 
another  incense-bearer,  another  votive  bull,  and 
two  more  senators.  And,  lastly,  we  have  several 
persons  carrying  on  a  stage  the  recumbent  figure 
of  a  bearded  old  man,  whose  left  arm  rests  upon 
an  urn.  He  is  supposed  to  represent  the  River 
Jordan,  or,  according  to  Bellori,  the  Lake  of  Gen- 
nesareth  ;  ^  at  whose  south-west  corner,  where  the 

1  'Tarichaiis,  ad  Lacum  Gennesar,'  says   Bellori,  'navali 
prtelio  devictis,  simulacrum  Lacus  ipsius  in  Triumpho  duci- 


mm' 


IMPERATORIS    TIT  I    TRIUMPHALIS    POMP  A. 

IN    ARCUS    TITI    ZOPHORO    VERSUS    A MPH ITHE ATR UM. 

REDUCED   FROM   BARTOLl'S  ADMIRANDA. 


76  THE   ARCH  OF   TITUS 

Jordan  resumes  its  course,  Titus  took,  as  we  have 
heard,  the  town  of  Tarichsea,  which  made  him 
master  of  nearly  all  Galilee.  Thus  Statius  repre- 
sents the  River  Inachus,  as  sculptured  on  the  palace 
walls  of  Argos :  *  Pater  ipse  bicornis  In  laevam 
prona  nixus  sedet  Inachus  urna.'^  And  it  is  to 
such  figures  as  this  that  we  are  indebted  for  the 
symbols  of  our  old  Father  Thames. 

It  should  also  be  mentioned,  before  we  quit  the 
Frieze,  that  at  each  extremity,  where  it  was  con- 
tinued over  the  capitals  of  the  outer  columns, — 
as  appears  from  the  prints  of  Donati  and  Mont- 
faucon, — there  was  a  female  figure,  seated  on 
the  ground,  similar  to  those  on  the  Vespasian 
coins ;  and  with  which  indeed  we  have  been  long 
familiar  in  the  lines  which  form  the  sequel  of 
those  just  cited  from  Pope's  Verses  on  Medals. 
He  is  contending  for  the  advantages  of  the  medal 
and  the  coin, — and  in  this  instance  with  obvious 
truth, — over  the  records  of  the  sculptor  and  the 
architect. 

tur.'  Venuti  rather  refers  the  figure  to  the  River  Jordan. 
'  Vi  si  vede  nel  principio  del  fregio  scolpita  la  figura  d^  un 
Vecchio  portata  da  due  Uomini,  che  rappresenta  il  Fiume 
Giordano,  per  mostrare,  che  da  Tito  venne  soggiogata  la 
Giudea,  seguitandovi  per  il  sagrificio  il  Bove,  e  altre  piccole 
figure.' — Antichita  di  Ronia^  p.  14. 
1   Thebaid.  II.  217. 


THE  ARCH  OF   TITUS 


77 


Ambition  sighed:    she  found  it  vain  to  trust 
The  faithless  cokimn  and  the  crumbhng  bust, 
Huge  moles,  whose  shadows    stretched  from  shore  to 

shore. 
Their  ruins  perished,  and  their  place  no  more. 


VESPASIANUS. 
A.U.C.     DCCCXXIV.     A.D.    LXXI. 


TITUS   VESPASIANUS. 
A.U.C,   DCCCXXXIII.       A.D.    I,X.\X. 


Convinced,  she  now  contracts  her  vast  design, 
And  all  her  triumphs  shrink  into  a  Coin. 
A  narrow  orb  each  crowded  conquest  keeps, 
Beneath  her  palm  here  sad  Jud^a  weeps.' 

And  thus  has  she  continued,  for  nearly  eighteen 
centuries,  to  affirm  the  fact  of  her  subjection  to 


78  THE  ARCH  OF   TITUS 

Rome,  and  to  illustrate  also  the  symbolism  of  her 
prophets;  who,  under  this  and  other  kindred 
images,  foretold  the  very  captivity  recorded  on 
these  coins.^ 

On  the  right-hand  side  of  the  inner  walls  of  the 
Arch,  we  have  the  conqueror  in  his  triumphal 
car,  with  many  of  the  friends  and  attendants  who 
formed  his  personal  staff  on  the  occasion. 

The  chariot,  commonly  used  in  triumphs,  differed 
from  the  military  and  from  the  circus  chariot."-^  It 
was  like  a  short  circular  tower,  as  we  see  it  on  the 
Arch  and  on  coins  and  medals.  It  was  usually 
made  of  ivory  and  gold  ;  a  work  of  great  artistic 
skill ;  and  it  was  generally  drawn  by  four  white 
horses  abreast.  Pompey,  on  his  return  from  Africa, 
appeared  with  elephants  harnessed  to  his  car ;  ^ 
but  the  white  horses,  which  were  introduced  by 
Camillus,  at  no  small  sacrifice  of  popularity, 
was  the  style  affected  by  most  of  the  imperators  : 
and  all  the  more,  no  doubt,  from  its  having 
been  deemed  a  sort  of  assumption  of  divine 
honours. 

Titus,  as  was  usual,  is  standing  in  his  chariot, 
and  has  in  his  hand  a  military  baton  :  the  reins  are 

1  See  Addison's  notice  of  these  coincidences,  Dialogues  on 
Medals^  p.  134. 

2  Zonaras,  Annales^  vil.  xxi.     Corpus  By::ant.  torn.  x.  p.  i. 

3  Pliny,  Hist.  Natural^  viii.  §  ii. 


8o  THE   ARCH  OF   TITUS 

hung  across  the  antux.  A  winged  figure  of  Victory, 
from  behind  him,  holds  a  large  crown  or  chaplet 
over  his  head.  Nor  was  this  altogether  an  inven- 
tion of  the  sculptor ;  for  there  seems  to  have  been 
a  person  appointed  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  the 
crown  on  these  occasions :  and,  in  earlier  times,  a 
slave  was  deputed  to  stand  behind  the  conqueror 
as  he  rode  along  in  triumph,  to  remind  him, — that 
he  too  was  but  a  man,  and  should  not  be  too  much 
elated  by  his  victory.^  Juvenal  alludes  to  this 
singular  custom,  and  fancies  how  Democritus  would 
have  been  amused  to  see  the  noble  Roman  in  such 
circumstances. 

'  In  tunica  Jovis  et  pict^  Sarrana  ferentem 
Ex  humeris  aulcea  togce,  magnseque  coron^E 
Tantum  orbem,  quanto  cervix  non  siifficit  ulla. 
Ouippe  tenet  sudans  banc  publicus,  et,  sibi  consul 
Ne  placeat,  curru  servus  portatur  eodem/  - 

1  Tertullian  appeals  to  this  practice,  in  defining  and  defend- 
ing the  kind  of  reverence  and  obedience  which  were  due 
from  Christians  to  the  reigning  emperor.  '  Non  enim  Ueum 
imperatorem  dicam,  vel  quia  mentiri  nescio,  vel  quia  iUum 
deridere  non  audeo,  vel  quia  nee  ipse  se  Deum  volet  dici. 
Si  homo  sit,  interest  homini  Deo  cedere ;  satis  habet  appel- 
lari  imperator.  Grande  et  hoc  nomen  est,  quod  a  Deo  tra- 
ditur.  Negat  ilium  imperatorem,  qui  Deum  dicit :  nisi  homo 
sit,  non  est  imperator.  Hominem  se  esse  etiam  triumphans 
in  illo  subhmissimo  curru  admonetur.  Suggeritur  enim  ei  a 
tergo,  Respice  post  te,  hominem  memento  te.'  Apologeticus 
adv.  Gejites.,  cap.  xxxiii.;   Semler,  vol.  v. 

^  Juvenal,    Sat.   x.   38 — 42.     Some  writers    say  that   this 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS  8i 

'  In  Jove's  gay  tunic,  and  embroidered  vest 
Of  Tyrian  tapestry,  superbly  drest  ; 
While  at  his  side  the  sweating  menial  bore 
A  monstrous  crown,  no  mortal  ever  wore  ; 
The  menial  destined  in  his  car  to  ride. 
And  cool  the  swelling  consul's  feverish  pride.' 

And  there  was  something  in  this  monitory  office 
of  the  slave  characteristic  of  severe  old  Rome,  and 
of  her  just  jealousy  of  these  triumphal  honours. 
Some  indeed  of  her  distinguished  men  declined 
them  ;  and  many  must  have  felt,  as  one  acknow- 
ledges, that  it  was  but  a  childish  sort  of  gratifica- 
tion, and  could  give  the  conqueror  no  substantial 
pleasure.!     Milton,  from    a   higher   point  of  view 

officer  was  the  Roman  Carnifex ;  but  his  contact  even  with 
the  crown  would  have  been  deemed  a  pollution.  Pitiscus, 
Lex.  Aiitiq.  Rom.^  s.  v.  Carnifex.  Nor  is  it  probable  that  he 
actually  uttered  the  admonitions  suggested  by  Tertullian. 
'  Nam  vel  silente  servo,'  as  Pitiscus  remarks,  '  id  ille  (Im- 
perator)  intelligebat.'  S.  v.  Triumphantes.  His  presence  in 
the  chariot  was  enough. 

1  '  Disseres  de  triumpho,'  says  Cicero  :  '  Quid  tandem 
habet  iste  currus?  quid  vincti  ante  currum  duces?  quid 
simulacra  oppidorum  ?  quid  aurum  ?  quid  argentum  ?  quid 
legati  in  equis,  et  tribuni  1  quid  clamor  militum  ?  quid  tota 
ilia  pompa  ?  Inania  sunt  ista,  mihi  crede,  delectamenta 
paene  puerorum,  captare  plausus,  vehi  per  urbem,  conspici 
velle.  Quibus  ex  rebus  nihil  est,  quod  solidum  tenere, 
nihil,  quod  referre  ad  voluptatem  corporis  possit.'  Orat.  iii 
Pisonem.,  §  25.  Must  not  Cicero  have  felt  that  there  was 
truth  in  this  disparagement  of  triumphal  honours,  though  he 
puts  it  into  the  mouth  of  one  who  decried  only  what  he  could 
not  obtain  ? 

F 


82  THE  ARCH  OF   TITUS 

than  Roman  magnanimity  seems  to  have  reached, 
sympathizes  more  with  the  conquered  than  the 
conqueror,  and  calls  his  triumph  '  an  insulting 
vanity.'  Such  are  the  terms  in  which  he  represents 
our  Lord  as  rejecting  the  Tempter's  offer  of  these 
dignities  of  '  great  and  glorious  Rome.'  ^ 

Nor  is  the  tablet  wanting  in  any  of  its  essential 
details ;  though  Vespasian,  who  preceded  Titus,  is 
not  there,  nor  Domitian,  who  followed  him  on 
horseback.  He  is  supported,  in  the  background, 
by  twelve  lictors  ;  whose  rods  of  office  are  without 
their  axes  :^  and,  in  front  and  round  about  the 
chariot,  by  senators  and  others  in  their  festival 
costume, — 'an  ample  train  of  nobles  all  in  white,' ^ 
— crowned  with  laurel  and  with  branches  in  their 
hands  :  and  some  mythical  personage,  by  the  side 
of  the  chariot,  seems  to  be  marshalling  the  proces- 
sion. The  horses  are  decorated  with  the  sacred 
crescents  which  were  worn  in  the  Circus  and  on  all 

1  Paradise  Regained^  IV.  45,  138. 

2  One  might  perhaps  expect  this  omission  on  such  an 
occasion  as  a  triumph :  but  it  may  be  otherwise  accounted 
for.  By  a  regulation,  introduced  by  Valerius,  in  the  first 
consulate,  it  was  enacted  that  the  axes  should  never  be 
carried  through  the  city  ;  a  restriction  which  Dionysius  Hali- 
carnassus  tells  us  {Antig.  Rom.  v.  xix.)  continued  up  to  his 
time. 

3  '  Praecedentia  longi  Agminis  officia,  et  niveos  ad  fraena 
Ouirites.' — Juvenal,  Sat.  x.  44, 


^       O 

tin 

:^       Q 

£   ^ 

H       Q 


84  THE  ARCH  OF   TITUS 

great  occasions ;  and  Rome  herself,  distinguished 
by  her  spear  and  helmet,  conducts  them  by  a  little 
leading  rein.i 

The  sculptures  on  the  other  side  of  the  Arch 
represent  the  spoils  which  were  taken  from  the 
Temple.  They  are  borne  aloft  by  Roman  soldiers, 
not  by  Jewish  captives,  as  some  writers  represent 
them  ;  for  they  are  crowned  with  laurel,  and  they 
have  in  their  hands  the  short  and  pointless  spears 
that  had  been  given  them  when  they  started.^ 
They  are  also  accompanied  by  persons  of  higher 
rank,  with  laurel  crowns  and  branches,  as  before, 
and  one  of  them  carries  some  trappings  on  his 
breast.^ 

These,  as  the  most  important  part  of  the  Spoils, 

^  Bellori's  Coimncnt.  in  Bartoli,  p.  8,  Montfaucon,  HAntiq, 
Expl.  torn.  V.  vii.  v.  ^  See  Note  3,  p.  57. 

^  Bellori  says,  in  reference  to  this  figure,  which  comes 
immediately  after  the  candlestick, — '  Eques  phaleris  ornatus 
habet  cingulum  in  pectore  cum  clavicuUs  aureis.'  But  he 
does  not  tell  us  what  these  phalercB  are,  which  this  Roman 
knight  is  carrying.  Of  course  they  must  be  Jewish  spoils. 
They  are  strapped  across  the  breast  of  the  bearer,  and  they 
remind  us  of  the  high-priest's  ephod  and  breastplate.  We 
have,  indeed,  no  account  in  Josephus  of  these  pontifical  ap- 
pendages having  been  exhibited  in  the  procession  ;  but  he 
tells  us,  in  a  passage  already  referred  to,  that,  together  with 
the  candlestick  and  other  implements,  one  of  the  priests 
delivered  to  Titus  'the  vestments  also  of  the  high-priests, 
with  the  precious  stones  ;  and  many  other  articles  belonging 
to  the  sacred  service.'     Ta  ivbvjxara  tcov  dpxupeov,    avv  toIs 


THE  ARCH   OF   TITUS  85 

seem  to  have  closed  this  section  of  the  pomp,  and  at 
a  short  distance  before  the  conqueror's  car.  There 
are  also  three  Title-boards  above  them,  similar 
to  those  which  we  have  seen  upon  the  Frieze ; 
which  had  probably  inscriptions,  for  the  informa- 
tion of  the  multitude,  stating  what  these  objects 
were,  and  whence  they  had  been  taken.  There  is 
one  above  the  Table,  another  near  the  Candlestick, 
and  a  third,  which  must  have  indicated  the  Book 
of  the  Law  ;  which,  however,  is  no  longer  visible. 
Villalpanda  thinks  that  the  Book  was  omitted, 
as  a  less  imposing  object^  than  the  other  spoils. 
Prideaux  suggests  that  it  was  not  inserted  for 
want  of  sufficient  space  to  introduce  it,  together 
with  the  coffer  in  which  it  was  kept.^  Dr.  Card- 
well  seems  to  think  that  this  Book  was  nothing 
more  than  a  tablet  of  gold,  or  of  some  other 
metal,  inscribed  with  some  portions  of  the  Divine 
Law ;  of  which,  he  says,  there  were  many  in 
the  Temple,  and  one  more  important  than  the  rest, 
which  had  the  Ten  Commandments  engraved 
upon  it.^ 

Xidois,  Koi  TToWa  rav  Trpos  ras  Upovpyias  crKevcou  aXka.  Bell. 
Jjid.  VI.  viii.  3. 

1  '  Minus  speciosum.'     Villalpanda.     Expkviat.  in  Esech. 
torn.  II.  V.  4. 

2  Prideaux,  Co7incction^  vol.  i.  i.  3,  p.  166. 

■'  Qt^x^w^^W,  Adnotat.  ad  Bell.  Jud.  VII.  v.  §  53. 


86  THE   ARCH  OF   TITUS 

None  of  these  conjectures  are  satisfactory.  Yet 
here  it  seemed  as  if  our  inquiry  must  end,  till,  on 
turning  to  the  pages  of  an  early  modern  writer, 
who  must  have  been  familiar  with  the  Arch,  for 
the  first  half  of  the  fifteenth  century,  it  appeared 
that  the  Book, — which  Josephus  describes  as  the 
last  or  crowning  object  of  the  spoils,^ — had  not 
been  forgotten  by  the  Roman  sculptor,  nor  had 
anything  else  been  substituted  for  it.  Biondo,  or 
Blondus,  as  he  is  commonly  called,  one  of  the 
earliest  of  the  Italian  antiquaries,  and  for  many 
years  the  pope's  secretary,  tells  us  in  his  work, 
Dc  Roind  Triiimphante,  that  the  Book  of  the 
Jewish  Law  was  extant  in  his  time,  amongst  the 
marble  sculptures  on  the  Arch,  together  with  the 
golden  Table  and  the  Candlestick :  and  it  is  a 
curious  circumstance,  which  may  account  in  some 
measure  for  the  doubts  and  conjectures  above- 
mentioned,  that  in  later  editions  of  Biondo's  work 
this  notice  of  the  sculptured  spoils  is  wanting. 
While  the  marble  record  was  yielding  to  decay 
the  written  one  was  also  becoming  obsolete. 

Such  then  are  the  Spoils  which,  according  to 
Josephus,  made  the  greatest  figure  in  the  Triumph. 

^  "O  re  vofxas  6  twv  'lovBalcov  eVl  tovtols  {i.  e.  the  golden 
Table  and  the  Candlestick)  ecfiepero  tcov  \a(Jivpcov  TeXevraios. 
Bell.  J  lid.  VII.  V.  5. 


THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS  87 

Nothing  is  said  of  the  Ark  of  the  Covenant^ 
which  Pitiscus  and  others  say  was  carried  in  the 
procession  ;  probably  mistaking  this  Table  for  the 
Ark,  as  has  been  done  by  many  writers.  For 
Jewish  authorities  are  generally  agreed  that  there 
was  no  Ark  in  the  second  Temple.  Josephus  says 
there  was  nothing  at  all  in  the  Holy  of  Holies 
in  his  time.^  Pompey,  on  entering,  found  it  utterly 
empty  :^  a  circumstance  which  Lucan  is  supposed 
to  refer  to,  when,  in  speaking  of  Judaea's  subjection 
to  his  hero,  he  calls  her  the  worshipper  of  an  unknown 
God.3 

And  as  from  respect  for  their  sacred  character 
these  Spoils  had  the  highest  place  of  honour  in  the 
Triumph,  a  like  distinction  was  also  assigned  them 
amongst  the  sculptured  records  of  the  Arch  ;  where 
they  still  affirm  their  high  and  ancient  origin,  not- 
withstanding all  the  changes  to  which  they  had 
been  subject,  from  the  time  of  the  erection  of  the 
Tabernacle  in  the  wilderness  till  their  appearance 
on  the  shoulders  of  their  Roman  conquerors.  And 
it  may  be  well  to  take  a  glance  at  their  eventful 
history,  as  far  as  we  can  trace  them  through  this 
long  and  chequered  interval. 

^  ^'EKfiTo  ovhkv  oXcos  iv  avT(3.      Bell.  Jud.  V.  v.  5. 
^  Tacitus,  Hist.  v.  9. 
•■^,  Civ.  Bell,  II.  592. 


CHAPTER    IV 

THE   JEWISH    SACRED   VESSELS 

What  became  of  the  Tabernacle  vessels  we 
know  not :  but  we  are  told  that,  when  Nebuchad- 
nezzar took  the  Temple,  he  carried  out  the  treasures 
of  the  Lord's  House,  and  cut  in  pieces  all  the 
vessels  of  gold  which  Solomon  had  made  for  the 
Temple-service  ;^  that  is,  the  larger  and  more  im- 
portant implements.  Many  of  the  smaller  ones 
were  taken  to  Babylon,  and,  after  having  been 
exhibited  at  Belshazzar's  feast,  were  brought  back 
on  the  return  from  the  Captivity.  Those  that  had 
been  destroyed  were  restored  by  Ezra,  in  pursuance 
of  the  orders  of  the  Persian  kings.- 

These  again  became  the  prey  of  the  spoiler. 
For  though  the  Jews,  under  their  Persian  rulers, 
had  much  rest  for  many  years,  a  great  change 
again  came   over   them,  and  they  fell  away  from 

'   2  Kintrs  xxiv.  -  Ezra  vi.  vii. 


THE  JEWISH  SACRED    VESSELS  89 

the  Divine  favour.  Tliey  began  to  affect  the  vain- 
glory of  the  Greeks,  and  to  adopt  much  of  their 
life  and  manners.  Their  high-priesthood,  having 
also  become  a  rich  and  an  important  temporal 
sovereignty,  involved  the  pontifical  families  in 
strife ;  and,  in  the  midst  of  their  feuds  about  the 
succession,  Antiochus  Epiphanes  entered  the  city, 
and  carried  off  from  the  Temple  the  golden  altar, 
and  the  candlestick,  and  the  shewbread  table,  and 
other  costly  things  ;  and  went  away  with  them 
into  his  own  land.i  So  that,  when  Judas  Macca- 
baeus  succeeded,  about  three  years  after  this  second 
spoliation,  in  regaining  possession  of  the  plundered 
Temple,  he  too  had  to  enter  on  the  work  of  restor- 
ation, as  Ezra  and  his  companions  had  done 
before. 

*Then,'  as  we  read  in  the  First  Book  of  the 
Maccabees,  'they  took  whole  stones,  according 
to  the  Law,  and  built  up  a  new  altar  according  to 
the  former  ;  and  made  up  the  sanctuary  and  the 
things  that  were  within  the  Temple,  and  hallowed 
the  courts.  They  made  also  new  holy  vessels ; 
and  into  the  Temple  they  brought  the  Candlestick,- 

1  I  Maccab.  i. 

2  In  our  common  version  there  is  here  an  interpolation. 
'  And  into  the  Temple  they  brought  the  candlestick  and  the 
altar  of  burnt -offering  and  of  incense. '  But  the  burnt-offering 
altar  had  no  place  in  the  vahv,  or  sanctuary,  and  its  restoration 


90  THE  ARCH  OF   TITUS 

and  the  Altar  of  incense  and  the  Table.  And  upon 
the  Altar  they  burnt  incense  ;  and  the  lamps  that 
were  upon  the  Candlestick  they  lighted,  that  they 
might  give  light  in  the  Temple.  Furthermore, 
they  set  the  loaves  upon  the  Table,  and  spread  out 
the  veils,  and  finished  all  the  works  which  they  had 
begun  to  make.'^  And,  in  devout  commemoration 
of  these  events,  they  instituted  the  Feast  of  the 
Dedication  ;  at  which,  about  two  centuries  after, 
our  Lord,  as  the  Evangelist  relates,  was  present 
and  walked  in  the  Temple  in  Solomon's  porch.- 

Thus  the  Hebrew  Ritual  was  once  more  re- 
stored ;  and,  by  the  superintending  care  of  its 
Divine  Author,  it  continued  till  those  vessels  of 
the  worldly  sanctuary,  with  the  sanctuary  itself, 
were  superseded  by  the  manifestation  of  the  new 
and  living  Way  into  the  Holiest  of  all  by  the 
blood  of  Jesus ;  according  to  the  order  of  the 
true  Tabernacle  which  the  Lord  pitched,  and  not 
man.^ 

These  vessels  then,  which  were  carried  in  the 
Triumph,  date  their  construction  from  this  cleans- 


by  Judas  is  mentioned  just  before,  v.  47.  Our  translators 
seem  to  have  followed  the  Alexandrian  text  instead  of  the 
Vatican  ;  in  which  oXoKavTcofxaTcov  koI  are  wanting. 

^  I  Maccab.  iv.  47 — 51.  -  John  x.  22,  23. 

^  Hebrews  ix.  8  ;  x.  19  ;  vVn.  2. 


THE  JEWISH  SACRED    VESSELS  91 

ing  of  the  Temple,  two  hundred  and  thirty-four 
years  before  its  pillage  and  destruction  by  the 
Romans.  And  though  nothing  is  said  of  any 
models  or  directions  which  Judas  Maccabaeus  had 
recourse  to  in  his  work,  we  may  conclude  that 
he  would  look  to  the  Old  Testament  ritual,— to 
the  pattern  originally  given  to  Moses :  and  it  will 
be  interesting  to  the  Biblical  student  to  see  how 
these  reconstructions,  in  their  chief  features,  appear 
to  justify  their  venerable  paternity. 

The  rules  for  the  construction  of  the  Shewbread 
Table  are  given  at  large  in  the  Book  of  Exodus. 

'Thou  shalt  also  make  a  Table  of  Shittim 
wood,'  that  is,  of  the  wild  Acacia  of  the  desert :  ^ 
*two  cubits  shall  be  the  length  thereof,  and  a 
cubit  the  breadth  thereof,  and  a  cubit  and  a  half 
the  height  thereof.  And  thou  shalt  overlay  it 
with  pure  gold,  and  make  thereto  a  crown  of  gold 
round  about.  And  thou  shalt  make  unto  it  a 
border  of  a  handbreadth  round  about,  and  thou 
shalt  make  a  golden  crown  to  the  border  thereof 
round  about.'  ^ 

As  to  the  relative  proportions  of  these  Tables, — 

^  Gesenius,  s.  v.  Shittah.  It  was  the  chief  growth  of  the 
desert,  though  rare  in  Palestine.  An  incidental  confirmation 
of  the  text.     Dean  Stanley's  Si?nu  and  Palestine,  p.  20. 

2  Exodus  XXV.  23 — 25. 


92  THE    ARCH  OF   TITUS 

the  draft  in  Scripture  and  the  sculptured  figure, — 
there  is  a  general  agreement  in  length  and  height. 
The  breadth  of  course  is  lost  in  a  bas-relief;  though 
the  sculptor  has  rather  unartistically  given  us  three 
sides  in  one  view.  We  must  make,  however, 
the  most  of  what  the  hand  of  Time  has  left  us ; 
and  must  direct  our  attention  almost  exclusively 
to  Reland's  authentic  copy  of  the  Table.  For  we 
learn  from  one  of  the  artists  em.ployed  by  him,^ 
that,  on  close  inspection  of  the  Sculptures  from  a 
scaffold,  which  he  had  erected  to  facilitate  his 
work,  he  found  them  to  be  different  in  some  par- 
ticulars from  what  he  had  supposed  them  to  be 
from  below.  Bartoli's  representation  of  the  Table, 
in  the  print  of  the  spoils  which  has  just  come 
before  us,  though  a  few  years  earlier  than  that  of 
Reland,  is  not  an  exact  copy  of  the  Table  at  that 
time.  Nor  was  it  his  object  to  give  these  sculp- 
tures in  the  state  of  decay  in  which  he  found  them  ; 
but,  as  we  learn  from  the  title  of  his  work,  to 
represent  them  as  restored  to  their  original  beauty  : 
a  work  which,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  arbitrary 
details,  he  has  executed  with  great  effect. 

1  See  Letfc7-  to  Reland  by  Antony  Twyman,  June  20,  17 10. 
He  is  speaking  especially  of  the  Candlestick  ;  but  the  remark 
applies  to  the  other  sculptures,  which  were  copied  at  the 
same  time  by  another  artist. — Dc  Spoliis  Teuipli  Hierosol.  in 
Arcu  Titiano,  cap.  i.  p.  5. 


THE  JEWISH  SACRED    VESSELS 


93 


One  of  the  first  things  that  strike  us  in  this 
sculptured  Table  is  the  circumstance  that  its  sur- 
face is  not  surmounted  by  that  serrated  sort  of 
border  which  is  attached  to  all  the  ordinary  prints 


THE    SHEW  BREAD    TABLE,     WITH    ITS    MEMORIAL    CUPS    AND 
THE    TRUMPETS. 


AS  THEY   APPEARED   A.D.    MDCCX. 


FROM   RELAND,    DE   SPOLIIS  TEMPLI   HIEROSOLYMITANI   IN   ARCU  TITIANO. 

of  it  ;    but    for   which    there   appears   to    be   no 
authority.^ 

We  read   indeed   that   the    Table  was  to   have 
what   is  called,  in  our  version,  a  crown  of  gold  ; 

^  Reland,  De  Spoliis^  cap.  vii.  pp.  70,  71. 


94  THE   ARCH   OF    TITUS 

that  is,  a  golden  wreath  or  border/  all  round  the 
framework,  which  still  forms  part  of  the  sculptured 
work  ;  the  upper  frame  remaining,  though  much 
decayed,  the  lower  one  reduced  to  two  mere  frag- 
ments. We  may  also  trace  upon  the  frames 
themselves  this  '  border  of  a  handbreadth  round 
about,'  or  rather  the  marks  of  the  place  where  it 
had  been  ;  a  sort  of  narrow  groove  or  indentation, 
as  Josephus  describes  it  in  his  Antiquities? 

The  Ritual  also  directs  that  the  Table  shall  have 
four  golden  rings  in  the  corners  of  the  feet,  for 
receiving  the  staves  by  which  it  was  to  be  carried  ;  ^ 
and  Villalpanda  suggests  that  the  fragments  of  the 
frame,  which  once  connected  the  legs  of  the  Table, 
— two  of  which  have  long  since  disappeared, — indi- 
cate the  places  of  two  of  these  rings.^  But  it  is 
doubtful  whether  there  were  any  such  appliances 
in  the  Table  which  was  made  for  Solomon's 
Temple,  when  the  service  was  limited  to  one 
locality  :  ^  and  it  is  not  probable  that  they  would 
be  restored  in  any  subsequent  reconstructions. 


-IT 


P- 


^  Ys.oCka'ivei ai  .  .  .  Kara  TraXaio-rrjv  to  eda(pos  eXt/cos  nepideovo-qs 
TO  re  (ivoi  Kai  to  kcltco  fxepos  tov  croifxaTos. — Alltiq.  Jud.  III.  vi.  6. 

2  Exodus  XXV.  26,  27. 

*  Expla7iat.  Ezech.  v.  \\.  70. 

'"'  Jahn,  Archaologia  Biblica^  §33i  :  e  contra,  Reland,  De 
Spoliis^  cap.'_x. 


THE  JEWISH  SACRED    VESSELS  95 

We  may  also  observe  that,  though  in  BartoH's 
Table  ^  he  has  restored  some  parts  of  the  original 
design,  he  is  not  correct  in  the  plinth  which  he  has 
added,  as  the  base  on  which  the  Table  rests.  In 
Reland's  print,^  which  may  be  regarded  as  authentic, 
and  which  exactly  agrees  with  the  present  state  of 
the  sculpture,  except  that  now  it  is  still  more 
decayed,  instead  of  this  plinth  there  is  nothing 
more  than  the  stage  on  which  the  Spoils  were 
carried  in  the  procession ;  as  is  indicated  also  by 
the  peculiar  formation  of  the  only  foot  which  is 
visible. 

Josephus  compares  the  Shewbread  Table  with 
what  were  then  called  Delphic  tables,  a  costly  kind 
of  furniture  then  common  in  Rome.^  The  upper 
parts  of  the  feet,  he  says,  were  square,  the  lower 
parts  were  perfectly  finished,  like  those  attached  to 
Doric  couches  ;  *  which  probably  means  that  they 

1  See  print,  p.  83.  ^  See  p.  93. 

3  'Ej/  Se  TM  m<u  Tpayrefai/  Xhpv^rai  (Moovo-^s-)  AeXcfyiKois  napa- 
TT^Tjo-iav.  Antiq.  Jiid.\\\.v\.6.  Bishop  Patrick  understands 
Josephus  as  saying  that  the  Shewbread  Table  '  was  Hke  the 
famous  Table  at  Delphi.'  Comme?it.  on  Exod.  xxv.  23. 
But,  if  such  had  been  his  meaning,  would  he  not  have  said 
r^  ev  A€X(pois  TrapaTrkrjo-iav,  not  AeXcfiLKois  ?  These  Delphics^ 
as  they  were  called,  were  a  sort  of  abacus  or  sideboard, 
overlaid  with  gold  or  silver  ;  the  chief  matter  of  comparison 
with  the  Shewbread  Table :  for  in  some  things  they  could 
not  have  been  much  alike. 

'^  'Htrai/  S'  avr'ri  TroSe?,  ra  p.kv  e^  rjpicrovs  ecos  Ta>v  kcitco  reXe'cj? 


96  THE  ARCH  OF   TITUS 

terminated  in  the  finished  foot  of  an  animal,  as 
appears  in  Reland's  copy  of  the  sculptured  work. 
So  that  in  this  respect  the  Table  in  the  Spoils, 
though  it  agreed  with  the  one  with  which  Josephus 
was  familiar,  must  have  differed  from  the  draft  in 
the  sacred  ritual :  a  difference  which  was  probably 
owing  to  the  fancy  of  the  last  restorers  of  the 
Temple-service,  or  of  some  Grecian  artist  employed 
by  them.  That  this  figure,  however,  is  the  Shew- 
bread  Table,  we  have  other  and  not  uninteresting 
proof. 

There  were  four  sets  of  vessels  belonging  to  this 
Table  ;  and  Reland  has  expended  much  curious 
learning  in  endeavouring  to  distinguish  their  several 
forms  and  uses.^  There  was  also,  as  we  learn  from 
a  Rabbinical  writer,  a  large  staff  of  officers  who 
had  to  attend  upon  it :  ^  for  it  was  evidently  served 
with  great  ceremony  ;  according  to  the  character 
of  that  Dispensation,  which  might  well  be  called 
the  '  Mother  of  Form  and  Fear/  but  which  was 
wisely  designed  to  instruct  her  children  in  the 
ways  best  adapted  to  their  age  and  circumstances. 

We  learn  from  the  ritual  order  in  Leviticus,  that 

dnrjpTLCTfJLevoi,    oh  Acjptets  TrpoaTtO^la-t  Tois  Kkivai9  ifK^epeis,  to 
de  TTpos   avTr]v  avarelvov   TeTpdycovot   rfj    epyaaia.      Alltiq.  J  lid. 
Ill,  vi.  6.     The  quadrangular  edges,  if  indeed   they  were 
copied  by  the  sculptor,  appear  to  be  worn  away. 
1  Dc  SpoHis,  cap.  xi  ^  /^/^,  p,  117. 


THE  JEWISH  SACRED    VESSELS  97 

twelve  Cakes  of  fine  flour,  according  to  the  number 
of  the  tribes  of  the  people,  were  to  be  set  upon  the 
Table  continually,  in  two  piles  of  six  cakes  each  ; 
and  that  a  Cup  of  pure  Frankincense,  for  a 
memorial  to  the  Lord,  was  to  be  placed  upon  each 
pile.  The  Cakes  were  to  be  changed  every  sabbath 
day,  and  to  be  distributed  amongst  the  priests ;  and 
the  Frankincense,  that  had  been  placed  upon  them, 
was  to  be  burnt  ;  in  token  that  the  Bread,  though 
not  to  be  destroyed,  had  been  given  to  the  Lord 
as  a  burnt  offering.^ 

As  to  the  mystic  purport  of  this  ordinance, 
though  it  does  not  necessarily  belong  to  our 
inquiry,  it  may  tend  to  throw  some  light  upon  it. 
This  Holy  Place  of  the  Lord's  House,  what  was 
it  but  a  figure  of  that  Church  or  community  into 
which  His  covenant  people  were  admitted  by  the 
Sacrifice  and  the  Laver  in  the  outer  court  ?  What 
the  priests,  who  ministered  therein,  but  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  chosen  people,  thus  brought  into 
near  and  privileged  communion  with  Him  who 
dwelt  especially  within  the  inner  veils  ?  And  what 
the  Bread,  which  they  placed  there  before  Him, — 
thence  called  the  Bread  of  His  presence, — but  the 
common  symbols  of  those  elements  of  Life, — it 
may  be  of  Life  both  bodily  and  spiritual, — which 
^   Lev.  xxiv.  5—9. 


98  THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 

His  people  were  always  receiving  at  His  hands,  and 
were  always  again  devoting  to  His  service,  and  of 
which  this  Incense  was  the  well-known  figure;  a 
sort  of  embodied  act  of  praise,  continually  ascend- 
ing to  the  gracious  Giver  ?  And  we  learn  from 
Josephus's  account  of  the  Table,  that  there  were 
two  small  golden  Cups  belonging  to  it,  for  holding 
the  Frankincense  in  these  services. 

These  are  undoubtedly  the  two  Cups  which  we 
still  see  upon  the  sculptured  table,  and  which 
were  probably  brought  to  Titus  by  one  of  the 
priests,  who  is  said  to  have  rescued  many  of  the 
spoils.  In  Bartoli's  engraving  ^ — why,  we  cannot 
say, — there  appears  to  be  only  one  Cup :  in 
Reland's  '"  one  of  them  is  much  decayed,  in  conse- 
quence of  an  extensive  fissure  in  the  marble  ;  and, 
judging  from  recent  photographic  prints,  this  Cup 
will  probably  ere  long  be  hardly  visible.  There 
can,  however,  be  no  doubt  that  these  Cups  represent 
those  appendages  of  the  Table  which  served  to 
mark  the  rites  of  the  conquered.  Nor  can  their 
small  dimensions  lessen  their  importance.  For,  as 
we  learn  from  a  Rabbinical  commentary  on  Levi- 
ticus,^ that  the  priests  used  only  two  handfuls  of 

1  See  p.  83.  2  See  p.  93. 

^  '  Illud  te,  lector,  esse  admonitum  volo,'  says  Reland,  '  ut 
ad  harum  acerrarum  attendas  magnitudinem,  quas  satis  bene 


THE  JEWISH  SACRED    VESSELS  99 

Frankincense,  one  for  each  pile  of  Bread,  these 
Cups  would  be  large  enough  to  hold  it :  and  as  a 
part  therefore  of  the  Table's  furniture,  for  holding 
what  the  Hebrews  called  the  AzcaraJi}  the  fire- 
portion,  or  sacred  memorial,  they  had  good  reason 
to  be  there. 

But  what  shall  we  say  of  the  Trumpets  ?  Jose- 
phus,  in  his  enumeration  of  the  spoils,  makes  no 
mention  of  the  Trumpets  as  having  formed  part 
of  them,  though  he  says  expressly,  as  we  have 
heard  already,  that  he  does  not  profess  to  give 
an  account  of  all  the  spoils.  Yet,  as  he  appears 
to  have  been  present  at  the  procession,  we  cannot 
but  conclude  that,  if  the  Trumpets  were  borne  in 
it,  they  could  not  have  had  so  conspicuous  a  place 
as  they  have  upon  the  sculptured  tablet. 

He  describes  in  his  Antiquities  the  kind  of 
Trumpet  which  was  used  in  his  time  in  the 
Temple-service ;  and  it  agrees  with  the  figures 
here  given.     Moses,  he  says,  was  its  inventor ;  it 

convenit  cum  iis  quae  Judsei  de  ilia  tradunt.  \ o\\xi\\. pugilliim 
thuris^  ri312?  yDIp-  singulis  fuisse  impositum.  Disertis 
verbis  id  R.  Simeon  tradit,  cujus  sententia  refertur  in  Siphra^ 
fol.  262.  I.  Requiruntur  duo  pugilli  thuris,  unus  pugillus 
plenus  pro  uno  ordine  panum,  alter  pro  altero.' — De  Spoliis^ 
cap.  xi. 

1  Kurtz  on  Sacrificial  Worship,  III.  ii.  §  148.  In  the  LXX. 
it  is  rendered  fxvrjfjioavvov ;  in  the  Vulgate,  Memoriale  ;  by 
Bunsen,  Fire-portion. 


loo  THE  ARCH  OF   TITUS 

was  made  of  silver,  a  little  shorter  than  a  cubit  ; 
its  mouth  was  a  little  larger  than  that  of  a  flute, 
just  wide  enough  to  admit  the  breath  ;  it  ended, 
like  common  trumpets,  in  the  shape  of  a  bell  ; 
it  was  called  in  the  Hebrew  tongue  Asosra. 

This  word  is  obviously  one  of  that  class  which 
are  designed  to  be  an  echo  of  the  sense,  though 
Asosra  but  feebly  represents  the  force  of  the 
Hebrew  original,  CJiatzotzeraJi ;  in  which  the  effect, 
as  Ewald  remarks,^  of  the  position  of  the  second 
and  third  radical  letters,  reminds  us  of  the  broken 
crashing  of  the  Trumpet's  blast. 

The  order  for  the  construction  and  the  use  of 
these  Trumpets  is  given  at  length  in  the  Book  of 
Numbers. 

'And  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses,  saying, 
Make  thee  two  Trumpets  of  silver;  of  a  whole 
piece  shalt  thou  make  them  :  that  thou  mayest 
use  them  for  the  calling  of  the  assembly,  and  for 
the  journeying  of  the  camps.'  Then  we  have 
various  military  signals,  which  are  to  be  given  in 
various  emergencies.  '  And  the  sons  of  Aaron, 
the  priest,  shall  blow  with  the  Trumpets ;  and 
they   shall   be  to   you    for  an  ordinance   for  ever 

^  See  his  remarks  on  the  onomatopoetic  structure  of 
n")V"vn.  Hebrew  Grammar^  by  Nicholson,  §  333  :  also 
Gesenius,  Lex.  Hcbr.  s.  v. 


THE  JEWISH  SACRED    VESSELS  loi 

throughout  your  generations.  And  if  ye  go  to  war 
in  your  land  against  the  enemy  that  oppresseth 
you,  then  ye  shall  blow  an  alarm  with  the  Trum- 
pets; and  ye  shall  be  remembered  before  the 
Lord  your  God,  and  ye  shall  be  saved  from  your 
enemies.  Also  in  the  day  of  your  gladness,  and 
in  your  solemn  days,  and  in  the  beginnings  of 
your  months,  ye  shall  blow  with  the  Trumpets 
over  your  burnt  offerings,  and  over  the  sacrifices 
of  your  peace  offerings  ;  that  they  may  be  to  you 
for  a  memorial  before  your  God :  I  am  the  Lord 
your  God.'  ^ 

And  these  Trumpets,  which  are  called  by  Mosea 
the  Chatzotzeroth^  are  to  be  distinguished  from  the 
one  called  Shophar,  the  common  designation  of 
the  Jubilee  trumpet ;  ^  which  was  curved,  and  is 
properly  called  a  Cornet,  as  in  our  version  of  the 
ninety-eighth  Psalm,  where  we  have  both  words  in 
the  same  line.  '  With  trumpets  and  sound  of  the 
cornet  make  a  joyful  noise  before  the  Lord  the 
King.'  ^      Our   Biblical  antiquaries  must  therefore 

*  Numb.  X.  I,  2,  8 — lo.  2  l^^^  ^xv.  9. 

^  In  Coverdale's  version,  still  in  use  in  our  Psalter,  instead 
^i  cornet  we  have  sha%ums.  '  With  trumpets  also  and  shawms, 
O  show  yourselves  joyful  before  the  Lord  the  King.'  Our 
etymologists  are  not  agreed  as  to  this  word.  Tyrwhitt, 
on  Chaucer,  makes  it  identical  with  psalteries.  Skinner  : 
'  Lituus  a  verbo  shallen  resonare,  nisi  a  psalmis  malis  de- 
flectere;  prius  tamen  magis  placet.'     Richardson  derives  it 


102  THE   ARCH  OF  TITUS 

be  mistaken  in  saying  that  these  sculptured  figures 
on  the  Arch  represent  the  Jubilee  trumpets ;  ^ 
from  which  they  differed  in  size  and  in  structure, 
as  well  as  in  some  of  the  sacred  uses  in  which 
they  were  employed  in  the  service  of  the  sanc- 
tuary. They  were  probably  amongst  the  Temple 
spoils,  which  Josephus  tells  us  were  brought  to 
Titus  ;  and  which,  if  not  actually  arranged  in  the 
pomp,  as  we  here  see  them  upon  the  rails  of  the 
Table,  were  so  placed  by  the  Roman  sculptor  with 
an  obviously  ingenious  graphic  effect. 

It  only  remains  to  notice  the  Candlestick,  which 
was  also  carried  in  the  triumph. 

'  This  Candlestick,'  says  Josephus,  '  was,  like  the 
Table,  made  of  gold,  but  it  was  arranged  in  a  dif- 
ferent manner  from  those  in  common  use  amongst 
us.  For  it  had  a  middle  column,  fixed  upon  a 
basis,  and  slender  stalks  extended  out  from  it, 
very  similar  in  their  position  to  the  figure  of 
a  trident,  each  constructed  with  a  lamp  on  the 
top.  And  these  lamps  were  seven  ;  indicating 
the  honour  of  the  hebdomad  amongst  the  Jews.'- 

from  the  French,  Chalemie  and  Chalmelle,  a  reed  or  pipe. 
The  word  was  no  doubt  extant  amongst  us  in  Wycliffe's 
time,  but  he  prefers  a  simple  version  of  the  Vulgate  :  '  In 
tubis  ductilibus  et  voce  tub^  cornecC.'  '  In  trumpis  beten 
out,  and  in  vois  of  the  hornene  trumpe.' 

1  Home's  Introdudioii^  Pt.  III.  chap.  i.  sect.  ii.  vol.  iii. 

2  Bell.  J  lid.  VII.  V.  5. 


THE  JEWISH  SACRED    VESSELS 


103 


The  purport  of  this  passage  seems  to  be,  that 
this  Candlestick  differed  in  its  structure  from  those 
in  common  use  amongst  the  people,  and  also  from 


THE    SEVEN-BRANCHED    CANDLESTICK. 

AS    IT   APPEARED   A.D.    MDCCX. 

FROM     RELAND,     DE     SPOLHS    TEMPLI     HIEROSOLYMITANI     IN    ARCU 
TITIANO. 

those  in  other  parts  of  the  Temple ;   which  were 

probably   numerous,   as    in    Solomon's    time.^      It 

^  I  Chron.  xxviii.  14,  15. 


I04  THE  ARCH  OF   TITUS 

differed  from  them  especially  as  to  its  tridental 
shape,  and  also  as  to  the  number  of  its  lamps, 
which  was  held  in  mystic  honour  in  Israel. 

So  also  the  Talmud  enjoins, — That  no  one 
shall  build  a  House  after  the  likeness  of  the  Holy 
one  ;  nor  make  a  table  like  its  Table ;  nor  form  a 
Lampstand  like  the  sacred  one ;  for  though  they 
might  make  one  of  five,  or  six,  or  eight  branches, 
they  were  not  to  construct  one  of  seven  ;  even 
though  they  made  it  not  of  gold,  but  of  any  other 
metal. ^ 

Such  was  obviously  the  great  Candlestick,  of 
which  we  have  the  figure  on  the  Arch.  It  has 
the  centre  shaft  and  the  six  branches  :  and  they 
are  spread  out  in  the  manner  of  a  trident :  that 
is,  not  in  many  and  different  directions,  as  is  usual 
with  the  branches  of  modern  candelabra,  but  all 
extended  in  the  same  plane. 

In  one  respect,  indeed,  there  seems  to  be  a 
difference  between  the  sculptured  figure  and  the 
description  in  Josephus.  He  says  that  the 
branches  of  the  Candlestick  were  slender ;  which 
cannot  be  said  of  the  sculptured  branches,  as  com- 
pared with  other  objects  on  the  tablet.  Reland 
conjectures    that   the    Roman    sculptor  made  the 

1  Rosh  Hassc/iaJta,  fol.  25,  in  Reland,  Dc  Spoliis^  pp. 
15,   16. 


THE  JEWISH  SACRED    VESSELS  105 

branches  larger  than  they  were  in  the  original,  in 
order  to  give  more  importance  to  the  figure,  and 
to  compensate  for  its  distance  from  spectators 
below  ;  as  the  bas-reliefs  on  Trajan's  Column  are 
said  to  increase  in  size  as  they  approach  its 
summit.i  Nothing  is  said  in  the  sacred  ritual  as 
to  the  size  of  the  Candlestick,  or  as  to  the  relative 
proportions  of  its  parts ;  but  it  speaks  with  great 
precision  of  the  construction  of  the  branches. 

'And  thou  shalt  make  a  Candlestick  of  pure 
gold :  of  beaten  work  shall  the  Candlestick  be 
made :  its  shaft  and  its  branches,  its  bowls,  its 
knops,  and  its  flowers,  shall  be  of  the  same.  And 
six  branches  shall  come  out  of  the  sides  of  it; 
three  branches  of  the  Candlestick  out  of  the  one 
side,  and  three  branches  of  the  Candlestick  out 
of  the  other  side.'^ 

So  far  the  ritual  and  the  sculptured  form  agree : 
but  there  is  more  detail  in  what  follows. 

'  Three  bowls,  made  like  unto  almonds,  with  a 
knop  and  a  flower  in  one  branch ;  and  three  bowls 
made  like  almonds  in  the  other  branch,  with  a 
knop  and  a  flower :  so  in  the  six  branches  that 
come  out  of  the  Candlestick.'  ^ 

Here   we    have    an    account,    not   only   of  the 

^  De  Spolus,  cap,  iv.  ^  Exod.  xxv.  31,  32. 

^  Exod.  xxv.  33. 


io6  THE  ARCH  OF   TITUS 

branches,  and  of  the  shaft,  which  forms  the 
seventh  light,  but  also  of  certain  ornaments  upon 
each  of  the  branches. 

The  word  Geviyim^  translated  Bowls,  generally 
means  the  calices  or  cups  of  flowers  ;  here  more 
especially  that  of  the  almond  ;  and  probably  de- 
notes the  sort  of  cup  which  is  above  and  below 
each  of  the  knops.  The  word  Capthorim^  trans- 
lated Knops,  is  rendered  by  Josephus  '  pome- 
granates/ It  seems  to  denote  the  balls  or  apples 
which  occur  between  the  upper  and  lower  cups. 
Perachim,  which  Gesenius  renders  'an  artificial 
flower,'  denotes  the  lily-like  blossom  which  we  see 
on  each  of  the  branches,  and  near  the  top  of  the 
shaft.  A  writer  in  the  Talmud  describes  it  as 
the  sort  of  flower  which  forms  the  capitals  of^ 
columns ;  and  with  which  indeed  it  well  agrees.^ 

But  in  the  two  next  verses  we  have  matters 
not  so  plainly  identified  with  the  other  parts  of 
the  sculptured  figure. 

'  And  in  the   Candlestick  shall    be    four   bowls 

made    like    unto  almonds,    with  their   knops  and 

their  flowers.      And  there  shall  be  a  knop  under 

two    branches    of   the    same,    and  a    knop    under 

^  Gesenius,  Lex.  Hcbr.  n"]?,  Fiirst,  s.  v.  remarks,  pro- 
bably in  reference  to  the  passage  cited  by  Reland  from  the 
Talmud  :  '  Flos,  non-nunquam  de  ornamento  architectonice.' 
The  LXX.  often  render  it  Kplvov. 


THE  JEWISH  SACRED    VESSELS  107 

two  branches  of  the  same,  and  a  knop  under 
two  branches  of  the  same,  according  to  the  six 
branches  that  proceed  out  of  the  Candlestick.'  ^ 

Here  the  Candlestick  evidently  means  the  up- 
right shaft  or  column  only,  as  forming  its  chief 
part  and  stay ;  and  it  seems  from  these  verses 
that  in  the  original  Candlestick  in  the  Tabernacle, 
these  ornaments  must  have  been  repeated  under 
each  pair  of  branches,  as  we  see  them  upon  the 
upper  part  of  the  shaft.  Here  the  sculptured 
figure  fails  us.  The  Candlestick  made  by  the  last 
restorers  was  probably  wanting  in  these  decora- 
tions, or  we  may  conclude  that  the  sculptor  would 
not  have  omitted  so  obvious  an  improvement  of 
the  whole  figure  ;  though  there  is  some  reason  to 
complain  of  a  want  of  precision  in  some  of  the 
minor  details  of  his  work.-^ 

We  have  only  to  add  a  word  or  two  on  the 
Pedestal,  which  seems  to  be  entirely  a  piece  of 
Roman  work,  and  must  have  been  utterly  unlike 
the  original.  Nothing  is  said  in  the  ritual  of  this 
part  of  the  Candlestick  ;  but  we  learn  from  Jewish 
writers  that  it  stood  on  three  feet,  and  that  the 
priests  who  had  the  charge  of  it  had  to  mount  up 


1  Exod.  XXV.  34,  35- 

2  Reland  instances  especially  the  want  of  uniformity  in  the 
lower  branches  of  the  Candlestick. — Dc  Spoliis^  pp.  7,  39,  59. 


loS  THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 

several  steps  to  set  its  lamps  in  order.^  It  must 
evidently,  therefore,  have  been  much  more  ele- 
vated than  this  figure  would  lead  one  to  expect. 
The  original  base  was  probably  lost  amongst 
the  plunder  of  the  Temple,  and  the  one  here 
represented  may  have  been  substituted  for  it,  for 
the  purpose  of  its  being  carried  in  the  pomp. 
Or,  it  is  not  improbable  that  this  sculptured 
pedestal  may  have  originated  entirely  with  the 
artist  who  executed  the  tablet,  and  who  added  it 
merely  to  complete  his  work  ;  together  with  the 
common  forms  of  decoration,  which  we  see  upon 
the  lower  parts  of  the  pedestal ;  especially  the 
eagles  with  garlands  in  their  beaks.  Certainly 
neither  these  nor  the  anomalous  figures  near  them 
could  have  found  admission  into  the  Holy  Place.- 

And  here  ends  our  present  inquiry.  Nor  need 
we  ask,  as  in  reference  to  the  Table,  what  was  the 
use  of  this  great  Candlestick ;    for  it  formed  the 

1  Pfeiffer,  De  Stritct.  Temp.  vli.  4.  0pp.  Philol.  p.  224  ; 
also  Jarchi's  Coinuient.  on  Exodus  xxv.  31,  in  Rosenmiiller's 
Scholia.,  vol.  i.  p.  588. 

2  The  Jewish  doctors,  according  to  Josephus,  pronounced 
it  to  be  unlawful,  Kara  rov  vaov  rj  dKovas  rj  TTpoTOjjias  rj  ("coou  nvos 
iiTcovvfxov  €pyov  dvai.  Bell.  Jud.  I.  xxxiii.  2.  These  figures 
on  the  Pedestal  were  probably  nothing  more  than  a  Lusus 
scitlploris,  as  Reland  calls  them.  The  circumstance  that  the 
eagle  was  the  Roman  rjyeixovLas  TeKfiT]fnov,  may  probably 
account  for  its  introduction  here. 


THE  JEWISH  SACRED    VESSELS  109 

only  light  of  the  Holy  Place,  which  without  it 
would  have  been  in  total  darkness.  Yet,  so 
entirely  was  the  Tabernacle  and  its  furniture 
pervaded  by  an  intelligent  and  acknowledged  sym- 
bolism, that,  although  we  cannot  concur  in  the 
mystic  fancies  and  ethnical  interpretations  of  Philo 
and  Josephus,  there  is  much  to  induce  us  to 
regard  this  Candelabrum  as  an  eminent  figure  of 
that  Divine  illumination  with  which  the  Church 
has  been  enriched  in  all  ages  by  the  Lord  and 
Giver  of  the  Light  of  Life.^ 

In  the  number  of  its  branches,  so  studiously 
constructed,  we  have  the  Church's  well-known 
covenant  signature ;  -  and  in  the  pure  oil  with 
which  they  were  supplied  we  have  the  sacred 
symbol  of  the  Unction  of  the  Holy  One.  Thus 
the  Candlestick  became  an  instructive  emblem  of 
the  covenant  people  in  their  special  character  as 

^  '  Septem  ilte  lampades,'  says  Vitringa  on  Rev.  i.  20, 
'  tarn  Candelabri  Mosaici  typici,  quam  mystici  illius  Cande- 
labri,  quod  Zachariae  in  visione  exhibitum  est,  baud  dubie 
respiciunt  Ecclesiam  Catholicam,  a  Verbo  et  Spiritu  Dei 
illuminandam  per  omnia  illius  tempora  et  status.' — Anac7'isis 
Apoc.  p.  35. 

^  '  Numerus  sanctus  et  reXf cr^opo^,'  says  Flirst  :  Vet.  Test. 
Concoi'd.  s.  V.  i^?.^^:  also  s.  v.  '^'^^^Jierare,  and  the  places  where 
it  occurs.  See  also  a  comprehensive  and  interesting  account 
of  the  '  symbolic  dignity '  of  this  number,  in  Archbishop 
Trench's  Co77imetttary  on  the  Epistles  to  the  Seven  Churches, 
pp.  57—64. 


no  THE   ARCH  OF   TITUS 

the  receivers  and  dispensers  of  the  Light  of  Life. 
And  it  suggests  to  all  who  are  children  of  the 
Light,  that,  wherever  Christ  has  placed  this  Can- 
dlestick,— this  Light  of  the  world,  as  He  calls 
His  disciples, — there  no  spiritual  darkness  should 
be  found,  but  the  Light  of  the  knowledge  of 
Him  and  of  His  ways ;  in  which  it  is  their 
highest  dignity  and  duty,  as  His  Church  and 
representatives,  to  flourish  and  abound. 

As  regards  the  value  of  these  Sculptures — as 
authentic  records  of  Jewish  antiquities,  of  which  we 
possess  no  other  copies,  as  illustrations  of  our  Lord's 
prophecy,  and  confirmations  of  a  great  historic 
fact, — few  persons  will  be  disposed  to  question 
their  importance.  And  though  we  fcannot  suppose 
that  any  of  the  originals,  from  which  the  artist 
made  his  designs,  were  actually  the  work  of 
Bezaleel  and  Aholiab,  or  formed  a  part  of  the 
furniture  of  the  Tabernacle, — who  can  look  at 
them  without  feeling  that  their  prototypes  are 
undoubtedly  to  be  found  in  those  old  records  of 
the  Hebrew  ritual, — the  Books  of  Exodus  and 
Leviticus }  They  take  their  origin  from  those 
venerable  ordinances  which  were  delivered  upwards 
of  three  thousand  years  ago  :  they  remind  us  of 
that  solemn  archetypal  voice  which  followed  the 
delivery  of  their  models  to  Moses, — '  See  that  thou 


THE  JEWISH  SACRED    VESSELS  iii 

make  all  things  according  to  the  pattern  showed 
to  thee  in  the  mount'  ^ 

On  quitting  these  sculptured  memorials  it  is 
obvious  to  ask,  What  became  of  their  originals  ? 
What  did  the  conquerors  do  with  these  spoils,  after 
they  had  enriched  their  transitory  triumph,  and 
had  feasted  the  eyes  of  the  heathen  multitude  ; 
who  probably  regarded  them  as  nothing  more 
than  the  relics  of  the  worship  of  another  of  those 
deities  who  had  from  time  to  time  submitted  to 
the  Roman  War-god,  being  unable  to  protect 
their  worshippers  ? 

Before,  however,  we  answer  this  question,  we 
may  notice  another,  which  Fuller  suggests,  in 
immediate  connexion  with  this  inquiry ;  and  it 
cannot  be  answered  in  better  words  than  his 
own. 

'  We  read,'  says  he,  '  what  befell  Belshazzar, 
when  he  quaffed  in  the  vessels  of  the  Temple. 
Some  perchance  might  have  expected  that  God,  to 
punish  the  profanation  of  these  holy  instruments, 
should  then  have  showed  some  signal  judgment 
on  the  profaners.  But  the  case  was  altered;  the 
date  of  ceremonies  was  then  expired,  the  use  of 
types  had  ended,  Christ,  the  Truth,  being  come ; 
and  the  moon  may  set  obscurely  without  any 
1  Exodus  XX.  40  ;    Hebrews  viii.  5. 


112  THE  ARCH  OF   TITUS 

man's  taking  notice  of  her,  when  the  sun  is 
risen,'  ^ 

Josephus  tells  us,  that  after  the  triumph,  Vespa- 
sian built  a  temple  to  Peace  ;  and  that  there, 
amongst  other  trophies  of  his  conquests,  he  de- 
posited the  vessels  that  had  been  taken  from  the 
Temple :  the  Law  and  the  vails  or  curtains  of 
the  Sanctuary  he  ordered  to  be  laid  up  in  the 
imperial  palace.- 

This  Temple  of  Peace  was,  according  to  Herodian, 
the  largest  and  the  most  beautiful  work  of  art 
in  Rome  ;  the  richest  also  in  its  endowments.^ 
Different  opinions  have,  however,  been  formed  of 
Vespasian's  design  in  its  erection.  Some  writers 
say  that  his  only  object  was  to  leave  a  memorial 
of  his  successful  career,  and  of  the  settlement  of 
the  imperial  crown  in  his  family.  Others  say 
that  he  affected  nothing  less  than  the  character 
and  the  honours  of  that  great  Personage  who  had 
been  expected  to  spring  out  of  Judaea,  and  to 
carry  His  peaceful  dominion  to  the  ends  of  the 
world.^     A  delusion  into  which  he  may,  perhaps, 

^  Pisgah-Sight  of  Palestine^  v.  19,  p.  179. 

-  Bell.Jud.  VII.  V.  7. 

^  Herodian,  Hist.  lib.  i.  cap.  xiv. 

*  See  the  statements  of  Castalio  and  Baronius  in  Pitisciis' 
edition  of  Suetonius,  Tit.  Flav.  Vesp.  cap.  ix.,  note  by  the 
editor.     But  Castalio's  inference  in  favour  of  the  former  of 


THE  JEWISH  SACRED    VESSELS  113 

have  fallen,  when  he  found  it  adopted,  as  we  have 
seen  it  was,  by  one  who  had  already  predicted  his 
elevation  to  the  throne ;  ^  and  who  was  too  ready 
to  foster  the  suggestion  of  his  heathen  flatterers,— 
That  there  was  nothing  beyond  the  reach  of  his 
high  destiny ;  nothing,  after  all  the  good  fortune 
that  had  befallen  him,  too  great  to  be  believed.^ 

This  temple  was,  however,  but  a  short-lived 
monument,  whatever  may  have  been  the  object 
in  erecting  it.  It  lasted  but  little  longer  than  a 
century  :  but  even  that  was  longer  than  the  Flavian 
dynasty,  which  came  to  so  ignoble  an  end  in 
Domitian.  It  was  destroyed  by  fire  in  the  reign 
of  Commodus,  in  a  manner  that  could  not  be 
accounted  for,  and  which  was  considered  as  ominous 
of  the  disastrous  times  that  ensued.^  It  was  burnt 
to  the  ground  ;  and  could  not,  therefore,  have 
been  that  building  whose  ruins  bore  so  long  the 
name  of  Vespasian's  Temple  of  Peace,  and   have 

these  opinions,  cannot  be  sustained  by  the  Inscription  on 
which  he  rests  it  ;  as  may  be  seen  by  reference  to  the  entire 
Inscription  in  Grater's  Corpus  Inscript.^  torn.  i.  p.  ccxxxix. 

1  Bell.  Jud.  III.  viii.  9. 

2  '  Cuncta  Fortunai  sua3  patere  ratus,'  says  Tacitus,  '  nee 
quidquam  ultra  incredibile.'— //zV/.  IV.  Ixxxi.  Such,  too,  was 
the  notion  under  which  Vespasian,  when  in  Egypt,  was 
prevailed  upon  to  try  his  hand  at  miracles,  just  after  he  had 
been  raised  to  the  empire  by  the  voice  of  his  legions. 

3  Herodian,  Hist.  lib.  I.  cap.  xiv. 

H 


114  THE  ARCH  OF   TITUS 

hardly  lost  it  even  now.  If,  however,  we  may 
credit  later  writers,  the  Jewish  spoils  did  not 
perish  with  this  temple  :  but  how  they  were 
saved,  and  where  they  were  deposited,  till  we 
hear  of  them  again,  we  know  not.^ 

As  for  the  story,  still  current  in  Rome,  and 
which  has  been  referred  to  in  some  recent  works,- 
— that  the  golden  Candlestick  was  lost  in  the  Tiber, 
when  Maxentius,  after  his  defeat  at  Saxa  Rubra, 
was  attempting  to  cross  the  Milvian  bridge, — 
there  does  not  seem  to  be  any  reliable  authority. 
None  is  given  in  the  works  above  mentioned. 
Nor  is  there,  as  I  learn  from  a  friend,  whom  I 
requested  to  examine  the  sculptures  on  the  Arch 
of  Constantine, — where,  if  anywhere,  we  might 
expect  to  find  it, — any  trace  of  this  story  ;  though 
Constantine's  arch  was  built  to  commemorate  this 
very   victory    at   the    Milvian    bridge,    and    he    is 

^  hi  Dyer's  Ruins  of  Ro)ne,  there  are  some  lines  on 
'  Salem's  sacred  spoils,'  which  were  deposited  in  this  Temple 
t)f  Peace  ;  but,  amongst  other  mistakes,  he  says  that  these 
spoils  are  now '  entombed  there,  beneath  the  sunk  roof  With 
most  antiquaries,  up  to  the  time  of  his  poem,  he  was  under 
the  impression  that  the  enormous  ruined  vaults  on  the  north 
of  the  Forum  were  the  remains  of  this  temple.  It  is  now 
generally  held  that  they  are  the  ruins  of  a  Basilica  of  Con- 
stantine, and  that  of  Vespasian's  temple  there  are  no  remains. 
— Burton's  Antiquities^  vol.  i.  p.  218. 

"^  Dean  Stanley's  Eastern  Churchy  Lecture  vi.  p.  226.  Dr- 
Smith's  Dictivnary  of  the  Bible ^  vol.  i.  p.  250. 


THE  JE  WISH  SA  CRED    VESSELS  1 1 5 

represented  on  one  of  its  bas-reliefs  as  bearing 
down  upon  Maxentius,  who  is  struggling  under- 
neath him  in  the  river. 

But  though  we  must  question  the  truth  of  this 
story,  we  have  other  information  as  to  the  fate  of 
these  Spoils,  which  is  entitled  to  much  more  credit. 

We  are  told  by  Theophanes  that,  on  the  third 
day  after  that  on  which  the  emperor  Maximus 
was  killed,  Genseric,  the  Vandal,  having  entered 
Rome,  sent  on  shipboard  all  the  money  that 
he  found  there,  and  the  most  remarkable  things 
in  the  city;  amongst  which  there  were  certain 
golden  treasures  and  jewels  that  had  belonged  to 
the  churches,  and  Hebrew  vessels  which  Titus, 
after  the  capture  of  Jerusalem,  had  brought  to 
Rome  ;  and,  taking  with  him  Eudoxia,  the  queen, 
and  her  daughters,  he  sailed  away  with  them  to 
Africa. 

Another  notice  of  Jewish  spoils,  about  half 
a  century  later  than  the  preceding,  occurs  in 
Procopius's  History  of  the  Gothic  War.  He  states 
in  his  account  of  the  exploits  of  Theodoric,  that 
the  old  town  Carcaso,  in  Languedoc,  then  in  the 
hands  of  the  Visigoths,  was  vigorously  besieged 
by  a  body  of  Germans,  in  consequence  of  a  report 
that  royal  treasures  were  concealed  there,  which 
Alaric  the  Elder  had   brought   from  Rome;   and 


ii6  THE  ARCH  OF   TITUS 

that  amongst  them  there  were  costly  things  which 
had  once  belonged  to  Solomon,  and  many  other 
articles,  adorned  with  precious  stones,  which  the 
Romans  had  formerly  brought  from  Jerusalem. 
We  are  not  told  how  far  this  report  was  true,  as 
to  the  treasures  being  Jewish  treasures ;  but  that, 
on  the  arrival  of  Theodoric,  who  came  to  protect 
the  rights  of  his  grandson,  the  city  was  relieved 
of  its  besiegers ;  and  that,  after  his  return  from 
other  conquests,  he  carried  off  the  treasures  to 
Ravenna. 

What  became  of  these  treasures  does  not  ap- 
pear. But,  with  regard  to  the  spoils  before  men- 
tioned, v/hich  Genseric  had  carried  away  into 
Africa,  we  have  further  information  in  another 
work  of  Procopius. 

He  tells  us,  in  his  History  of  the  Vandal 
War,  that,  after  the  subjugation  of  the  Vandals 
in  Africa,  Belisarius  came  with  Gelimer,  and  a 
large  amount  of  spoils,  to  Byzantium,  and  there 
enacted  something  of  what  the  Romans  call  a 
triumph  :  yet  not  exactly  in  their  ancient  fashion  ; 
for  he  went  on  foot  from  his  house  to  the  palace, 
with  the  thrones  and  chariots  of  the  Vandal  queen, 
and  with  the  spoils  w^hich  Genseric  had  carried  off 
from  Rome ;  and  that  amongst  them  were  the 
Vessels  which,    on    the  destruction    of  Jerusalem, 


THE  JEWISH  SACRED    VESSELS  117 

Titus  had  transported  with  other  things  to  Rome. 
He  adds,  that  a  Jew,  happening  to  see  them,  said 
to  a  person  well  known  to  the  emperor, — That,  in 
his  opinion,  it  was  not  expedient  that  the  spoils 
should  be  taken  into  the  palace ;  for  that  they 
could  never  be  kept  in  any  other  place  than  that 
where  of  old  they  had  been  deposited  by  King 
Solomon  [that  is,  supposing  them  to  have  be- 
longed to  the  first  Temple] ;  that  this  was  the 
reason  why  Genseric  had  taken  the  Roman  palace, 
and  why  the  Romans  had  now  taken  that  of  the 
Vandals.  The  historian  adds,  that,  on  hearing  these 
words,  the  emperor  (Justinian)  was  alarmed  ;  and 
speedily  sent  them  all  away  to  the  holy  places 
of  the  Christians  in  Jerusalem. 

These  appear  to  be  the  last  tidings  of  these 
Spoils  :  vague  enough  and  unsatisfactory,  as  to  the 
specific  articles  themselves  ;  whether  they  consisted 
up  to  this  period  of  all  those  articles  to  which  our 
attention  has  been  directed  ;  as  to  the  mode  of 
their  conveyance,  and  as  to  the  sacred  places,  to 
which  they  are  said  to  have  been  consigned.  Gib- 
bon says,  with  more  than  usual  reverence  for  such 
matters,  if  indeed  he  meant  to  be  reverential,  but 
with  somewhat  less  than  his  usual  accuracy, — '  The 
holy  vessels  of  the  Jewish  Temple,  after  their  long 
peregrination,   were    respectfully  deposited  in  the 


ii8  THE  ARCH  OF   TITUS 

Christian  church  of  Jerusalem.'  ^  He  does  not  say 
what  church,  though  there  must  have  been  many 
churches  at  that  period  in  Jerusalem.  Nor  is  Pro- 
copius  more  explicit.  In  fact,  the  arrival  of  the 
Spoils  at  Jerusalem,  though  not  improbable,  can 
hardly  be  proved.  Not  that  there  are  no  subsequent 
historical  accounts  of  sacred  relics  in  that  city ; 
for  we  have  notices,  even  in  the  next  century,  of 
many  sacred  things  in  the  churches  at  Jerusalem, 
which  were  plundered  and  carried  off  by  the 
Persians  :  ^  but  there  is  no  mention  of  these  Jewish 
spoils.  So  that  I  cannot  but  concur  with  Reland, 
that  this  account  of  their  having  been  despatched 
by  Justinian  are  the  last  tidings  which  we  have  of 
them.^  Whether  they  ever  reached  Jerusalem  is 
uncertain ;  and  it  is  all  but  certain  that  they  never 
came  back  to  Rome. 

Adrichomius,  a  writer  of  the  sixteenth  cent- 
ury, in  a  work  on  the  Geography  of  the  Holy 
Land,  gravely  tells  us  that  the  Ark  of  the 
Covenant,  the  Tables  of  the    Law,  the    Rods  of 

1  Decline  and  Fall ^  chap.  xli.  A.D.  534. 

2  See  Chronicon  Paschale^  Corpus  Bysa7it.  Hist.,  torn.  iv. 
p.  306  ;  and  Contextio  Geniinarum,  sive  Entychii  Annates, 
edited  by  Selden  and  Pocock,  torn.  ii.  pp.  211 — 215. 

3  '  Quid  porro  his  Spohis  accident,  et  an  navis,  cui  credita 
sunt,  in  Patestinam  appulsa  sit,  aut  aHa  his  vasis  reditum 
prasciderint,  nos  latet.  Certe  Hierosolymis  nunc  non  conspi- 
ciuntur.' — De  Spotiis,  p.  138. 


THE  JEWISH  SACRED    VESSELS  119 

Moses  and  Aaron,  and  some  portions  even  of  the 
Shewbread  were,  in  his  days,  in  the  church  of 
S.  John  Lateran,  in  Rome/  but  he  says  nothing  of 
the  Shewbread  Table,  nor  of  any  of  the  other  spoils 
in  question.  So  that  if  these  relics  really  survived 
the  burning  of  Vespasian's  Temple  of  Peace,  there 
is  probably  some  truth  in  these  accounts  of  their 
having  been  carried  away  from  Rome  ;  otherwise, 
we  should  probably  have  heard  of  them  again, 
somewhere  or  other,  in  that  great  storehouse  of 
ecclesiastical  antiquities,  as  well  as  of  the  less 
veritable  relics,  the  Ark,  the  two  Tables,  and  the 
Rods  of  Moses  and  Aaron  ;  for  these  things  are 
admitted  by  the  Jews  to  have  been  lost  on  the 
destruction  of  the  first  Temple. 

Still,  whatever  may  have  become  of  these  Spoils, 
—whether  there  be  any  truth  or  not  in  these 
stories  of  their  transfer  by  Genseric  into   Africa, 

^  '  Ou^e  quidem  omnia,'  says  Adrichomius,  '  Area  videlicit, 
auro  tamen  nudata,  Tabulae  Legis,  Virga^  Moysi  et  Aaronis, 
Panes  quoque  Propositionis,  ac  quatuor  columnas,  Rom^  in 
Ecclesia  S.  Joannis  Lateranensis  adhuc  conservantiir.'  — 
Theatrmn  Terrce  Sa7tctcE,%  77,  p.  159.  The  same  fabrica- 
tion about  the  Ark  is  also  repeated  by  Minutolius,  Dissert. 
Raman.  Antiq.  Illust.  in  Sallengre's  Thesaurus^  vol.  i.  p.  118  ; 
and  he  adds,  after  reciting  the  account  of  Justinian's  de- 
spatching the  spoils  to  Jerusalem,  '  Plura  qui  cupit,  adeat 
Lipsium,  De  Magnitnd.  Romcc,  lib.  III.  C.  vi.'  This,  how- 
ever, is  but  a  false  light  :  I  have  turned  to  Lipsius  :  there  is 
nothing"  more. 


I20  THE  ARCH  OF   TITUS 

and  of  their  reappearance  in  a  second  triumphal 
pomp,  in  the  second  great  capital  of  the  Roman 
empire, — these  Sculptures  survive,  and  have  been 
bearing  their  testimony  for  nearly  eighteen 
hundred  years,  a  record  of  the  desolation  which  our 
Lord  foretold  would  come  upon  Jerusalem  and 
upon  her  Temple  ;  which  was  always  deemed  her 
proudest  boast,  as  the  palace  of  the  city  of  the 
Great  King.  That  edifice  which,  through  all  its 
varying  forms  and  fortunes,  was  for  ages  the  bond 
of  national  union,  the  centre  of  the  affections  of 
every  loyal  son  of  Israel ;  and  which  fell  at  last 
only  when  its  faithless  people  fell  away  from  the 
covenant  of  the  God  of  their  fathers ;  rejecting 
the  King  whom  He  had  sent  to  reign  over  them ; 
and  scornfully  refusing,  for  forty  years,  all  offers  of 
the  Gospel  of  His  grace,  till  their  City,  Temple, 
Saviour, — all  was  lost.^ 

^  '  Neque  eversa  est  Judteorum  respnblica,'  says  Limborch, 
'  nisi  postquam  Euangelium  omnibus  quaquaversum  Jiidaeis 
prasdicatnm,  et  ab  iis  rejectum  esset ;  ne  quisquam  se  ob 
alterius  crimen,  aut  totum  popukmi  ob  Hierosolymitanomm 
solummodo  crimen  (uti  hie  facit  Vir  doct.)  puniri  conqueri 
posset.  Idque  juxta  vaticinium  Servatoris  nostri  Jesu  Christi, 
Matt.  xxiv.  14  :  "  Et  praedicabitur  hoc  Euangelium  Regni  in 
universo  orbe"  (quousque  nempe  Jud^i  sunt  dispersi)  "in 
testimonium  omnibus  gentibus  ; "  (quod  nempe  non  ob  crimen 
solum  Hierosolymitanomm,  sed  totius  populi  inter  omnes 
gentes  dispersi,  templum  et  respublica  evertatur,)  "  et  tunc 
veniet  consummatio.'"' — Dc  Vcrit.RcUi:.  Christ.  Arnica  Col  hi- 


THE  JEWISH  SACRED    VESSELS  121 

We  see  then  how  this  Arch  subserves  a 
purpose  which  was  never  thought  of  by  the 
Romans  who  erected  it.  They  built  it  to  per- 
petuate the  triumph  of  their  arms,  and  of  the  great 
general  who  had  led  them  to  victory.  They  have 
exhibited  him  and  his  victorious  army  in  what 
they  deemed  the  summit  of  human  glory ;  and 
with  the  view  to  transmit  to  future  times  some 
record  of  the  power  and  splendour  of  that  empire, 
which,  as  it  has  extended  to  the  ends  of  the 
known  world,  they  fondly  thought  would  also  last 
for  ever.  Their  visions  of  glory  have  long  since 
vanished  ;  while  these  records  of  their  fallen  power 
and  grandeur  serve  to  establish  the  claims  of  tliat 
Kingdom  which  was  destined  to  succeed  their 
fourth  great  monarchy ;  to  surpass  the  utmost 
limits  of  the  Roman  sway  ;  to  be  spread  out  under 
the  whole  heaven  ;  an  everlasting  dominion  which 
shall  not  pass  away :  ^  and  which  had  already 
begun,  much  to  the  annoyance  of  the  votaries  of 
Heathendom,"  to  take  root  amongst  them  far  and 


tio  aim  e7'udito  Jiidcro.  Qusest.  11.  cap.  vi.  p.  252.  See  also 
the  remainder  of  this  able  and  interesting  answer  to  Orobio  : 
'  De  prassenti  Judaeorum  dispersione,  et  qua  ratione  in  ea  ut 
populus  separatus  subsistant.' 

1  Daniel  vii.  3 — 14. 

'■^  Witness  those  indignant  lines  of  Rutilius  on  the  progress 
of  the  Gospel,  to  the  extrusion  of  the  gods  of  old  Rome,  by 


122  THE  ARCH  OF   TITUS 

near,  before  the  destruction  of  those  typical  ser- 
vices which  perished  for  ever  with  the  Jewish 
Temple. 

There  are  also  other  thoughts  that  naturally 
arise,  as  we  look  at  these  memorials  of  a  Church 
and  of  an  Empire  which  have  long  since  passed 
away.  What  a  lesson  do  they  read  to  every 
Christian  nation,  especially  to  such  a  nation  as 
ours,  to  know  the  times  of  visitation,  to  under- 
stand our  privileges  and  our  duties,  to  see  why 
God  has  so  richly  endowed  us  with  the  light  of 
His  truth  and  the  power  of  diffusing  it ;  to  be  like 
Israel,  a  blessing  in  the  midst  of  the  earth :  and 
to  know  when  God  is  coming  near  us  in  distress 
of  nations,  tribulation,  perplexity ;  the  shaking 
of  the  powers  of  the  political  firmament,  that 
the  Kingdom  that  cannot  be  shaken  may  re- 
main !  1 

For  there  are,  no  doubt,  for  every  people  as  for 


despised  and  subjugated  Jews.  'Atque  utinam  nunquam 
Judaea  subacta  fuisset,  Pompeii  bellis,  imperioque  Titi.  Latius 
excisae  pcstis  contagia  serpunt,  Victoresque  suos  natio  victa 
premit.' — Iter.  i.  395. 

'  Would  that  Judaea  ne'er  had  fallen  a  prey 
To  Pompey's  arms  and  Titus'  princely  power ! 
The  exscinded  pest  still  wider  works  its  way  ; 
The  conquered  trample  on  their  conqueror.' 


Luke  xxi.  25—27  ;  Heb.  xii.  26,  27, 


THE  JEWISH  SACRED    VESSELS  123 

every  soul  of  man,  definite  times  of  visitation,  of 
which  one  must  be  the  last.  Hence  it  concerns  us 
to  mark  and  understand  the  grace  and  mercy  of 
that  visitation,  as  well  as  that  it  has  its  appointed 
limit.^  Jerusalem  unhappily  would  know  neither  : 
Jerusalem  was  accordingly  crushed  to  the  earth. 
Her  beautiful  House  was  made  desolate,  her 
children  were  dispersed  throughout  the  world ; 
and  so  must  they  continue  till  they  welcome  with 
blessing  the  long-rejected  King  of  Israel.^ 

And  yet  what  a  striking  contrast  is  their 
state  even  in  their  present  fall  and  dispersion,  to 
that  of  the  conquerors,  who  erected  this  Arch  to 
commemorate  their  domination  over  them !  Though 
no  longer  enjoying  any  political  existence,  they 
exist  as  a  people  in  almost  every  country  in  the 
world  ;  in  regions  which  their  conquerors  never 
reached  ;  where  not  even  the  Roman  name  was 
known  ;  bearing  about  with  them  the  same  dis- 
tinctive marks  of  race  and  of  religion  as  when  our 
Lord  predicted  the  fall  of  their  commonwealth, 
and  when  Titus  led  them  through  the  streets  of 
Rome  in  fetters.  They  abide,  as  it  is  predicted 
'  they  shall  abide,  many  days,' — now  the  days  of 
nearly  eighteen  hundred  years, — 'without  a  king, 
and  without  a  prince,  and  without  a  sacrifice,  and 

1  Stier  on  Luke  xix.  43,  44.         -  Matt.  xxii.  7  ;  xxiii.  39. 


124  THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 

without  an  image,  and  without  an  ephod,  and  with- 
out a  teraphim.'  ^  For  they  are  now  as  adverse  to 
all  idol  worship  as  they  were  prone  to  it  in  former 
times. 

But  are  they  to  continue  in  this  state?  Are 
they  to  be  merely  witnesses  of  those  glorious  pro- 
mises to  others,  of  which  they  are  not  to  be  partakers 
themselves  ?  Is  the  Trumpet-call  never  to  be  heard 
again  in  Israel,  summoning  together  their  scattered 
children  ?  Is  the  light  of  their  Candlestick  quenched 
for  ever?  Is  the  Holy  Table  never  again  to  be 
spread  for  them,  in  testimony  that  the  Lord  is 
keeping  house  amongst  them  ;  feeding  them  with 
the  Bread  of  His  presence,  the  joy  and  strength  of 
man's  heart  ? 

Surely,  the  word  of  promise  tells  us  that  Israel's 
present  doom  is  not  to  last  for  ever.  '  They  shall 
seek  the  Lord  their  God,  and  David  their  King  ; 
and  shall  fear  the  Lord  and  His  goodness  in  the 
latter  days.'  - 

'  It  shall  come  to  pass  that  the  great  Trumpet 
shall  be  blown  ; ' — not  the  silver  trumpet  for  the 
restoration  of  the  Tabernacle,  but  the  great  mystic 
Trumpet  of  the  world's  jubilee  :  ^' — '  and  they  shall 

^  Hosea  ill.  4.  -  Hosea  iii.  5. 

^  That  is,  not  the  Chatzotzcrah^  but  the  Shopliarj  as  it  is 
here,  Isaiah  xxvii.  13, 


THE  JEWISH  SACRED   VESSELS  125 

come  which  were  ready  to  perish  in  the  land  of 
Assyria,  and  the  outcasts  in  the  land  of  Egypt, 
and  shall  worship  the  Lord  in  the  Holy  Mount  at 
Jerusalem.'  ^ 

The  sacred  Table  shall  be  again  set  up  for  them, 
— as  it  is  indeed  for  all  God's  people  now, — in 
thankful  remembrance  of  a  greater  redemption 
than  that  of  Israel  by  the  Angel  of  the  Covenant : 
who  still  leads  and  feeds  His  chosen  in  the  wilder- 
ness; still  sends  them  Bread  from  heaven,  and 
admits  to  communion  and  fellowship  with  Him, 
not  the  members  of  one  tribe  only,  but '  the  spiritual 
house,  the  holy  priesthood',  of  all  who  are  true 
believers  in  His  name.^ 

The  great  Candlestick  shall  be  again  lighted 
up  for  them  with  the  light  of  the  knowledge  of 
God's  glory,  in  Him  who  is  the  very  Light  of 
Light;  who  walks  in  the  midst  of  His  golden 
candlesticks  ;  whose  light  shall  then  be  seven  times 

1  This  is  part  of  a  great  prophecy  which  seems  to  belong 
to  the  last  age  of  the  present  dispensation  ;  and  which  could 
not  have  been  fulfilled,  as  Vitringa  has  shown,  in  the  days  of 
Hezekiah,  nor  in  the  return  from  Babylon,  nor  as  yet  in  these 
times  of  the  Gospel.  Assyria  and  Egypt  are  probably  the 
two  great  mystic  world-powers  which  will  fall  before  the 
final  trumpet-call  to  Israel.  See  Vitringa  on  Isaiah  xxvii.  13  ; 
and  his  'Eniixerpov  ad  cap.  xi.  15,  Be  Assyria  mysticd. 

2  I  Peter  ii.  5,  9. 


126  THE  ARCH  OF  TITUS 

multiplied.  '  For  the  light  of  the  moon  shall  be 
as  the  light  of  the  sun,  and  the  light  of  the  sun 
shall  be  sevenfold,  as  the  light  of  seven  days,  in 
the  day  that  the  Lord  bindeth  up  the  breach  of  His 
people,  and  healeth  the  stroke  of  their  wound.'  ^ 

'  Isaiah  xxx.  26, 


LIST   OF   SCRIPTURE    REFERENCES 


Exodus. 

XX.   40 p.    Ill 

XXV.  23 95 

XXV.  23-25 91 

XXV.  26,  27 94 

XXV.  31  108 

XXV.  31-33 105 

XXV.  34,  35 107 

Leviticus. 

xxiv.  5-9 97 

XXV.  9 loi 

Numbers. 

X.  I,  2,  8-10 lOI 

XV.  14-16 19 

Deuteronomy. 
xxviii.  49-59 40 

2  Kings. 
xxiv 88 

I  Chronicles. 
xxviii.  14,  15 103 

Ezra. 
vi.,  vii 88 

Isaiah. 
xxvii.  13 125 


XXIX.  3,  4 37 

XXX.  26 126 

Daniel. 

vii.  3-14 121 

ix.  27 28 

xi.  31 26 

Hosea. 
iii.  4,  5 124 

MiCAH. 

V.  2 33 

Matthew. 

ii-  1-6 33 

V.  35 49 

xxii.  1-7 49 

xxii.  7 123 

xxiii.  34-46 14 

xxiii.  39 123 

xxiv 17 

xxiv.  15 27 

xxiv.  15,  16 26,28 

xxiv,  21,  22 49 

Mark. 

xiii 17 

xiii.  14 26 

Luke. 
xix.  43  36 


xix.  43,  44 15,  48, 

123 

xxi 17 

xxi.  20,  21 26,  28 

xxi.  25-27 122 

xxiii.  28,  29 41 

John. 

X.  22,  23 90 

^i-  4^ 53 

Acts. 
iii-  14,  15 50 

Hehrews. 

viii.  2 90 

viii.  5 Ill 

ix.7,25 43 

ix.  8 90 

X.  19 90 

xii.  26,  27 122 

I  Peter. 

ii-  5,  9 125 

3  John. 

23 

Revelation. 

i.  20 109 


IN  DEX 


Abomination  of  desolation,  the, 
26 

Adrichomius  quoted,    1 19 

Agrippa,  rule  of,  19 

Arch  of  Titus,  date  of,  64  ;  in- 
scriptions on,  65  ;  representa- 
tions of  Titus  on,  67,  89  ;  style 
of,  71  ;  details  of,  72  ;  frieze 
of,  73  ;  chariot  on,  78  ;  sculp- 
tures on,  82  ;  spoils  on,  85  ; 
purpose  of,  121 

Bellori  quoted,  74,  83 

Bethhoron,  22 

Book  of  the  Law,  85 

C?esarea,  revolt  at,  18 

Candlestick,  the  golden,  102 ; 
legend  of,  114 

Cassius,  Dion,  quoted,  51 

Cicero  quoted,  51,  62,  89 

Cornets,  loi 

Cups,  the  sacred,  98 

Delphic  tables,  95 

Donati  quoted,   58 

Dryden  quoted,  67 

Eagles,  Roman,  27 

Felix,  rule  of,  1 7 

Florus,  rule  of,  17 

Gadara,  burning  of,  24 

Callus,  Cestius,  conduct  of,   21 

Grotius  quoted,  27 

Italy  quoted,  63 

Jerusalem,  Gallus  at,  21  ;  fac- 
tions in,  25  ;  Titus  before  the 
city,  26  ;  population  of,  30  ; 
assaults  of,  31  ;  famine  in,  32  ; 
a  wall  round,  34  ;  dead  in,  37  ; 
cessation  of  daily  sacrifice,  38  ; 
capture  of,  39  ;  fate  of  captives 
of,  50 

Jews,  the  present  state  of,  123; 
future  of,  124 

Josephus,  revolt  of,  23  ;  capture 
of,  24 


Jotapata,  siege  of,  24 

Juvenal  quoted,  80 

Lampe  quoted,  23 

Limborch  quoted,  120 

Livy  quoted,  40 

Milton  quoted,  44 

Ovid  quoted,  58,  60 

Pella,  the  flight  to,  28 

Pilate,  rule  of,  1 7 

Pliny  quoted,  59 

Pope  quoted,  70,  77 

Procopius  quoted,  116 

Propertius  quoted,  57 

Reland  quoted,  92,  98,  11 S 

Rutilius  quoted,  121 

Shawms,  loi 

Spoils,  sacred,  85  ;  fate  of,  115 

Slatius  quoted,  76 

Table  of  shewbread,  the,  91 

Tacitus  quoted,  27,  34,  41,  44, 
66,  113 

Tarichrea,  capture  of,  24 

Temple,  doom  of,  14  ;  capture 
of,  39  ;  magnificence  of,  42  ; 
destruction  of,  45 

Temple  of  Peace,  the,  112 

Tertullian  quoted,  27,  80 

Titus,  enters  Palestine,  24 ;  re- 
turns to  Rome,  25  ;  before 
Jerusalem,  26  ;  cruelty  of,  32  ; 
"triumph  of,  56 ;  inscription 
to,  65  ;  representation  of,  on 
Arch,  76.;  medals  of,  77 

Triumph  of  Titus,  54 

Trumpets,  the,  99 

Vespasian,  conduct  of,  23  ;  be- 
comes emperor,  25  ;  medal 
of,  77  ;  his  Temple  of  Peace, 
112 

Vitringa  quoted,  109 

Zealots,  the,  18 

Zonaras  quoted,  57 


Richard  Clay  «&-  Sons,  Limited,  London  ^  Bungay. 


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